-ing
Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.
Suffix morpheme
- Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.
- My hearing is not good.
- I have had several meetings with him.
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As true nouns.
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As gerunds.
- Smoking marijuana cigarettes daily is bad for your health.
- She has a habit of sleeping late.
- I like meeting people.
- Used to form nouns denoting materials or systems of objects which are used or employed in an action, or considered collectively.
- Roofing is material that is used to roof.
- Clothing is material with which one is clothed.
- The piping is a system of pipes considered collectively.
Origin
Inherited from Middle English -ing, -yng, -ynge, from Old English -ing, -ung (“-ing”, suffix forming nouns from verbs), from Proto-West Germanic *-ingu, *-ungu, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō (“-ing”). Cognates Cognate with Scots -in, -in', -ing (“-ing”), Yola -een (“-ing”), Saterland Frisian -enge (“-ing”), Dutch -ing (“-ing”), German and Luxembourgish -ung (“-ing”), Danish -ing, -ning (“-ing”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish -ing (“-ing”), French -ange (“-ing”). Unrelated to Brahui -اِنْگ (-iṅg, “a suffix used to form infinitive or verbal noun from the base verb; -ing”).
Forms
Synonyms
Related
Derived
batting bunting carpeting lining packing piping roofing siding ticking tubing wadding wiring
Suffix idiomatic, morpheme
- Forming derivative nouns (originally masculine), with the sense ‘son of, belonging to’, as in placenames, patronymics or diminutives; -ite.
- Ealing, Dorking, Reading, Worthing
- Browning, Channing, Ewing
- Middle English *bunt + -ing → bunting
- Forming nouns having a specified quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind of
- sweet + -ing → sweeting
- white + -ing → whiting
- geld + -ing → gelding
Origin
From Middle English -ynge, from Old English -ing, from Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Akin to Old Norse -ingr.
Forms
Related
Suffix morpheme
- Used to form present participles of verbs.
- Rolling stones gather no moss.
- My new cabin, which is going to look over the lake, is getting a brand new roof this winter.
- I wondered what time the play was starting.
Origin
From Middle English -inge, -ynge, alteration of earlier -inde, -ende, -and (see -and), from Old English -ende (present participle ending), from Proto-West Germanic *-andī, from Proto-Germanic *-andz (present participle ending), from Proto-Indo-European *-onts. Cognate with West Frisian -end, Dutch -end, Afrikaans -ende, German -end, Low German -end, Danish -ende, Swedish -ande, Icelandic -andi, Gothic -𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (-ands), -𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 (-ōnds), Latin -ans, -ant-, Ancient Greek -ων (-ōn), Sanskrit -अन्त् (-ant), Polish -ący, -ąc, Czech -oucí, Ukrainian -учий (-učyj), Serbo-Croatian -ući/-ући. More at -and.