-ing

• -in', -in (colloquial)
• -ïng (rare or nonstandard)

• IPA^(key): /ɪŋ/, /ɪn/, /ən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (southern North West England, northern West Midlands, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, Kent) IPA^(key): /ɪŋɡ/^[1]
• (Kent, some dialects of General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪŋk/, /ɪŋɡ/
  • Homophone: ink
• (US and Canada, sometimes) IPA^(key): /in/, /iŋ/^[2]
  • Homophone: een

Inherited from Middle English -ynge, -yng, -ing, from Old English -ing, -ung (“-ing”, suffix forming nouns from verbs), from Proto-West Germanic *-ingu, *-ungu, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō. Cognate with Saterland Frisian -enge (“-ing”), West Frisian -ing (“-ing”), Dutch -ing (“-ing”), Low German -ung, -ing, -ink (“-ing”), German -ung (“-ing”), Danish -ing (“-ing”), Swedish -ing (“-ing”), Icelandic -ing (“-ing”). Unrelated to Brahui -اِنْگ (-iṅg, “-ing”).

-ing

2. 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.
   1. As true nouns.

      My hearing is not good.

      I have had several meetings with him.

   3. As gerunds.

      Smoking marijuana cigarettes daily is bad for your health.

      She has a habit of sleeping late.

      I like meeting people.

3. 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.

Compare -tion, which can be applied to some (Latinate) nouns with almost the same meaning:

the activating of the weapon must be stopped

the act of activating the weapon must be stopped

the activation of the weapon must be stopped

In the first and third phrases the words in bold are nouns, while in the second phrase the word in bold is a gerund and the noun is act, cognate with action.

There was formerly a tendency for the final vowel of a word to contract when this suffix was added; hence carrying /ˈkæɹ(j)ɪŋ/, /ˈkæɹ(j)ɪn/, following /ˈfɒlwɪŋ/, /ˈfɒlwɪn/, but analogy has usually now resulted in restoration of the full form (e.g., /ˈkæɹi.ɪŋ/, /ˈfɒloʊ.ɪn/). ^[3] The same kind of analogy has resulted in pronunciations of bottling such as /ˈbɒtəlɪŋ/, /ˈbɒtəlɪn/ (for earlier /ˈbɒtlɪŋ/, /ˈbɒtlɪn/).

• (act of doing something, action): -tion, -ment
• (activity): -ery, -ment
• (collection): -age, -ery

(collection):

The translations below are a guide only. See individual words for precise translations.

• (collection): work

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.

-ing

2. 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.

   Anybody touching this wire will get a deadly shock.

   When it occurred, I was flying to New York a great deal.

   We were boogieing from midnight until three o’clock in the morning.

   • a. 2001, Brian Hall, “Beej's Guide to Network Programming”, “Using Internet Sockets”

     If you are connect()ing to a remote machine […] you can simply call connect(), it'll check to see if the socket is unworthy, and will bind() it to an unused local port if necessary.

From Middle English -ynge, from Old English -ing, from Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Akin to Old Norse -ingr.

-ing

2. (no longer productive) 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

   ‎skill + ‎-ing → ‎shilling

   ‎fourth + ‎-ing → ‎farthing

3. Forming nouns having a specified quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind of

   ‎sweet + ‎-ing → ‎sweeting

   ‎white + ‎-ing → ‎whiting

   ‎geld + ‎-ing → ‎gelding

• -ed

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “-ing¹”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 281–282.
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “-ing²”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 282.
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “-ing³”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 282, column 2.

• IGN, Gin, gin, nig, NGI, GNI

• -ning

From Old Norse -ing, -ung, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō.

• IPA^(key): [eŋ]

-ing c (singular definite -ingen, plural indefinite -inger)

1. added to a verb to form a noun for an action or process, the result of or the subject performing such action
2. designates a person of a certain origin or with certain qualities

• (added to a verb to form a noun for an action or process): -else, -tion

• “-ing” in Den Danske Ordbog

• IPA^(key): /ɪŋ/

Inherited from Middle Dutch -inge, from Old Dutch -inga, -unga, -onga, from Proto-West Germanic *-ingu, *-ungu, from Proto-Germanic *-ungō.

-ing f (plural -ingen, diminutive -inkje or -ingetje)

1. Creates action nouns referring to the performance of a verb, or the result thereof.

From Middle Dutch -inc, from Old Dutch -ing, from Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz.

• -inck, -ink

-ing m

1. (no longer productive) Forms nouns for a person originating from a place or family.

The suffix is no longer productive and is not generally recognised in this meaning. It is found in many place names and surnames, however.

• -üng

-ing

1. (Erzgebirgisch) -ing

Borrowed from English -ing.

• IPA^(key): /iŋ(ɡ)/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪŋ/

-ing m (noun-forming suffix, plural -ings)

1. Used to form verbal nouns from verbs

• Most terms suffixed with -ing are borrowed directly from English, but some are not (e.g., surbooking, relooking).

-ing

1. plural marker

   amul (“woman”) : amuling (“women”)

• Robert L. Bradshaw, Fuyug grammar sketch (2007)

Borrowed from English -ing. Doublet of native -ung.

-ing n (genitive -ings, plural -ings)

1. (in English borrowings) -ing
2. (productive, colloquial, humorous) Used to form verbal nouns which jocularly imply that something is a sport, trend, or fashionable concept.

   Extremsparing ― extreme saving: saving money as a sport

   Cloud-Abwasching ― cloud dish washing: dish washing following the cloud principle

   • 2001, Ulrich Busse, Typen von Anglizismen, in: Gerhard von Stickel (ed.), Neues und Fremdes im deutschen Wortschatz, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, p. 131-155 [only a mentioning]

     Typen von Anglizismen: von der heilago geist bis Extremsparing – aufgezeigt anhand ausgewählter lexikographischer Kategorisierungen.

     Types of anglicisms: from der heilago geist [Old High German for “the Holy Spirit”] to extreme saving – illustrated by means of selected lexicographic categorisations.

   • 2012, Hans Zippert, “Wir verlagern das ganze Leben in die Internetwolke”, in Website of Die Welt:

     Beim Cloud-Abwasching wird das schmutzige Geschirr einfach ausgelagert, damit es keinen Speicherplatz in der Spüle wegnimmt und jeder darauf zugreifen kann, der die Lizenz zum Abwasch hat.

     In cloud dish washing, the dirty crockery is simply swapped out, so it doesn’t take up any memory in the kitchen sink and everybody who has a wash-up licence can access it.

• Productive use is chiefly restricted to ad-hoc formations (such as the two examples above).

Inherited from Middle Low German -inc, from Old Saxon -ing, from Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz.

-ing

1. (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) Used to form diminutives.

• Nouns derived with this suffix are neuters and their plural end in -ings.
• The suffix can not only be added to nouns, but also to other parts of speech like adverbs.

• -ken
• (East Frisian) -je, -tje, -ke

• Carl Friedrich Müller, Zur Sprache Fritz Reuters. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der mecklenburgischen Mundart, Leipzig: Max Hesse's Verlag, 1902, pp. 41-2, 47.

• IPA^(key): [iŋɡ]

-ing

1. (frequentative suffix) Added to a verb or to an onomatopoeic stem to form a verb denoting repetitive action.

   kering (“to circulate, orbit”)

• (frequentative suffix) Variants:

  -ong is added to back-vowel words

  ‎hajol (“to bend”) + ‎-ing → ‎hajlong (“to bow repetitively”)

  -eng is added to unrounded front-vowel words

  ‎derül (“to clear up”) + ‎-ing → ‎dereng (“to dawn; to appear vaguely”)

  -öng is added to rounded front-vowel words

  ‎őrül (“to go insane”) + ‎-ing → ‎őrjöng (“to be wild, furious, raging”)

  ‎düh (“fury, rage”) + ‎-ing → ‎dühöng (“to be in a raging temper”)

  -ang is added to back-vowel words (rare)

  lappang (“to lurk”)

  -ing is added to front-vowel words (rare)

  kering (“to circulate, orbit”)

• Appendix:Hungarian suffixes

• -ng in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, page 568, →ISBN.  (See also its 2nd edition.)

Inherited from Old Norse -ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō.

-ing f (noun-forming suffix, genitive singular -ingar, nominative plural -ingar)

1. -ing; indicates an action performed by a verb

-ing

1. alternative form of -ynge (gerund)

-ing

1. alternative form of -ynge (present participle)

-ing

1. alternative form of -yng

Inherited from Old Norse -ingr m, -ingi m, -ing f, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō.

• IPA^(key): /ɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

-ing m or f or m (see below)

1. Used to form verbal nouns from verbs; -ing.

   Han var lei av masing. ― He was tired of nagging.

2. Used to form demonyms.

   ‎Færøyene + ‎-ing → ‎færøying

The gender is usually m or f (in Bokmål) if the word ended in -ing in Old Norse and m if it ended in -ingr or -ingi. Living things like islending (“Icelander”) and dumming (“idiot”) are usually m whilst inanimate things like stråling (“radiation”) and eting (“the act of eating”) usually are m or f.

• -ning

• “-ing” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Inherited from Old Norse -ing f.

-ing f

1. Used to form verbal nouns from verbs; -ing.

From Old Norse -ingr m, -ingi m.

-ing m

1. Used to form demonyms.

   ‎Færøyane + ‎-ing → ‎færøying

• -ning

• “-ing” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

-ing

1. used in certain adverbs

• ingoding
• ningoding

-ing

1. A suffix denoting the locative form of a noun

• The Ojibwe People's Dictionary https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/word-part/ing-final

• IPA^(key): /inɡ/, [iŋɡ]

Variant of -ung.

• -ung

-ing f

1. Forming nouns from verbs, indicating action, process or material.

Strong ō-stem:

From Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz.

-ing m

2. Forming derivatives of nouns with sense of ‘belonging to, son of’.

Strong a-stem:

• -ung

Inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō.

-ing f

1. forms gerund nouns from verbs

• Icelandic: -ing, -ung
• Faroese: -ing
• Norwegian Nynorsk: -ing
• Norwegian Bokmål: -ing
• Old Swedish: -ing, -ung
  • Swedish: -ing, -ung (fossilized)
• Danish: -ing

• -an f
• -ingi m, -ingr m

From aing (“I, me”).

-ing

1. clitic possessive of aing (“I, me”); my
   • 14th century, Pendakian Sri Ajnyana (Kropak 625) [The Ascension of Sri Ajnyana]‎^[2], line 10:

     "...Saurna sang Sri Ajnyana: `Adiing, ambet ka dini. Mulah ceurik nangtung dinya!..."

     "Sri Ajnyana said: 'My little sister, please come here. Do not weep, standing there!"

   anaking – my child

   ambuing – my mother

• Sundanese: -ing

Inherited from Old Norse -ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō.

-ing

1. Forms gerund nouns from verbs

• Swedish: -ing, -ung

-ing

1. locative

Jerry Randolph Valentine (2001), Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar, University of Toronto, page 194

Borrowed from English -ing. Doublet of -unek.

• IPA^(key): /iŋk/
• Rhymes: -iŋk
• Syllabification: [please specify syllabification manually]

-ing m inan

1. Forms colloquial or humorous nouns.

   ‎grzyb + ‎-ing → ‎grzybing

-ing

1. alternative form of -in (“ing”)

• -in

Unadapted borrowing from English -ing.

-ing m (noun-forming suffix, plural -ings)

1. forms verbal nouns from verbs

• Most terms suffixed with -ing are borrowed directly from English, but some are not (e.g., footing (pseudo-anglicism), puenting, edredoning).

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Inherited from Old Swedish -ing, -ung, from Old Norse -ing, -ung, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō. Cognate with German -ung.

-ing c or f

2. Used to form verbal nouns from verbs; -ation; -ing

• -ning
• -ung (archaic)

From Old Swedish -inger, from Old Norse -ingr, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Cognate with Icelandic -ingur, English -ing (derivative suffix).

-ing c or m

2. (rarely productive) added to a noun stem, causing i-mutation (if applicable), forming a noun denoting an inhabitant or original of a particular place, a descendant of a person, etc.; -er, -ite. See also -ling.

   ‎Skåne (“Scania”) + ‎-ing → ‎skåning (“Scanian”)

   ‎Island (“Iceland”) + ‎-ing → ‎islänning (“Icelander”)

4. (rarely productive) diminutive suffix

   ‎get (“goat”) + ‎-ing → ‎geting (“wasp”)

   ‎släkt (“(extended) family”) + ‎-ing → ‎släkting (“relative”)

   ‎galen (“crazy”) + ‎-ing → ‎galning (“crazy person, lunatic, madman”)

• gin, nig

• -ng — for roots ending in vowels

Possibly from Spanish -ín. Compare tsikiting with Spanish chiquitín and list of Derived terms.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈiŋ/ [ˈɪŋ]
• Rhymes: -iŋ
• Syllabification: -ing

-ing (proper noun-forming suffix, Baybayin spelling ᜒᜅ᜔)

1. diminutive suffix, used to form diminutives ending in consonants, especially given names, often one already shortened or with a diminutive suffix.

• Tagalog terms suffixed with -ing

  bading

  Berting

  bosing

  buking

  charing

  Crising

  dalaginding

  Feling

  gining

  guwaping

  Karding

  Loleng

  Maning

  Narding

  pabling

  Pedring

  Ponching

  praning

  Puring

  Rosing

  Seniang

  tabatsing

  Tonying

  Trining

  tsikiting

  usbing

  wating

  Yoling

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

-ing

1. second-person singular possessive suffix, used after a noun ending in a consonant

   Bu kitobing. ― This is your book.

When directly addressing another person, it is polite to use the plural -ingiz or -ngiz forms.