Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A suffix used to from present participles.
  • A suffix used to form nouns from verbs, and signifying the act of; the result of the act. It has also a secondary collective force.
  • A suffix formerly used to form diminutives.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • suffix Forming derivative nouns (originally masculine), with the senseson of, belonging to’, as patronymics or diminutives.
  • suffix Having a specifed quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind of
  • suffix Used to form gerunds, a type of verbal nouns, from verbs.
  • suffix Used to form uncountable nouns from various parts of speech denoting materials or systems of objects considered collectively.
  • suffix Used to form nouns of the action or the procedure of a verb; usually identical with meaning 1. in the English language or expressed with -tion instead
  • suffix Used to form present participles of verbs.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English -ing, from Old English -ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Akin to Old Norse -ingr, Gothic -𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍃 (-iggs).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English -ing, from Old English -ing, -ung ("-ing", suffix forming nouns from verbs), from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō, from Proto-Indo-European *-enkw-. Cognate with West Frisian -ing ("-ing"), Dutch -ing ("-ing"), Low German -ing ("-ing"), German -ung ("-ing"), Swedish -ing ("-ing"), Icelandic -ing ("-ing").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English -inge, -ynge, alteration of earlier -inde, -ende, -and (see -and), from Old English -ende (present participle ending), from Proto-Germanic *-andz (present participle ending), from Proto-Indo-European *-nt-. Cognate with Dutch -end, German -end, Gothic -𐌰𐌽𐌳 (-and), Latin -ans, -ant-, Ancient Greek -ον (-on), Sanskrit  (-ant). More at -and.

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