DictionaryRoot: -ing
English
-ing
an action or activity
Forms
- -ing
- -ung — An older related English form.
Origin
Old English -ing and -ung formed names for actions. Their later spelling converged with the ending used in doing and walking.
Note
The same modern spelling now serves several grammatical jobs whose histories were not identical.
3 / 27
noun
cooking
The activity of preparing food, usually using heat.
Etymology
Latin coquere supplies the cooking word. The ending -ing names the activity, gathering the preparation of food, especially its transformation by heat, into a single process.