Bathing

How to spell bathing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bathing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bathing mean?

1. nounThe act of washing the body in water, or of swimming in the sea, a river, or a pool for pleasure.
2. adjectiveUsed for or associated with washing or swimming, as in a garment or piece of equipment.

Bathing in a sentence

• noun

  The resort posted a sign warning that bathing was unsafe after the storm.

• adjective

  She packed a new bathing suit for the seaside trip.

• noun

  A long soak in the tub turned bathing into the highlight of her evening.

• adjective

  The hotel left a soft bathing robe folded on each bed.

Where does bathing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word traces back to the Old English noun 'bæth', meaning a washing or immersion in water, which is a native Germanic word with relatives across the old Germanic languages such as the German 'Bad'. From the noun came the Old English verb 'baðian', meaning 'to wash or immerse', the direct ancestor of the modern verb 'bathe'. When the verb takes the present-participle ending '-ing', the silent final 'e' of 'bathe' is dropped, giving 'bathing', and that lost 'e' is exactly where writers stumble, sometimes leaving in an extra letter. The long vowel heard in 'bathe' and 'bathing' (rhyming with 'lathe') comes from the way Old English vowels shifted over the centuries, even though the related short-vowelled noun 'bath' kept its original sound. The same watery root also gives English the place-name and town of Bath, famed since Roman times for its hot springs.

How the word is built

• bathe (root verb, from bath)
• -ing (present participle/gerund); the silent 'e' of bathe is dropped before -ing