Advising

How to spell advising

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce advising

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does advising mean?

1. verbOffering someone counsel or a recommendation about what they should do.
2. verbFormally informing or notifying someone of a fact.

Advising in a sentence

• The lawyer is advising her client to settle out of court.

• The airline is advising passengers of the delayed departure.

• The manual warns against advising patients without proper training.

• The letter is advising customers that prices will rise next month.

Where does advising come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the verb 'advise', which English took from the Old French 'aviser', meaning 'to consider, to take note of'. That French verb traces back to the Latin phrase 'ad visum', built from 'ad' meaning 'to' or 'toward' and 'visum', the past participle of 'videre', 'to see'; so the literal idea was bringing something to someone's view. Over time the sense shifted from 'making something visible' to 'forming an opinion' and then to 'offering counsel', which is how we use it today. English added the native '-ing' ending to make the participle and gerund 'advising'. The same 'vis' root for seeing turns up in everyday relatives such as 'vision', 'visible', and 'supervise'. A useful memory hook: the verb forms keep the 's' (advise, advising), while only the noun 'advice' uses the 'c'.

How the word is built

• ad- (to, toward)
• vis (from videre: to see)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)