Where does “climbing” come from?
Climbing is a Middle English formation combining clymbyng with the suffix -ing, derived from Old English -ing and -ung, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots gel- and gley-.
climbing (English): The sport of climbing, ascending a wall or a rock...
Definitions
- The sport of climbing, ascending a wall or a rock...
Ancestry of “climbing”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | clymbyng | climbing, ascension; rising in society |
| 2 | Middle English | -ing | Forms gerunds from verbs, typically referring to... |
| 3 | Old English | -ing | Forming nouns from verbs, indicating action,... |
| 4 | Old English | -tūn | — |
| 5 | Old English | tūn | enclosure, yard; place; dwelling |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | tūn | fence |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | tūną | fence; enclosure |
| 8 | Gaulish | dunum | fort; hill, hillfort |
| 9 | Proto-Celtic | dūnom | stronghold, rampart |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | dʰewh₂- | smoke; mist, haze |
Words derived from “climbing”