Courting

How to spell courting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce courting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does courting mean?

1. verbPaying romantic attention to someone with the intention of forming a relationship or marriage.
2. verbActing in a way that risks or actively invites a particular result, often a negative one.

Courting in a sentence

• The two had been courting for a year before they announced their engagement.

• By ignoring the safety checks, the firm was courting disaster.

• In their grandparents' day, courting often meant chaperoned walks and Sunday visits.

• The columnist seemed to enjoy courting controversy with every article.

Where does courting come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word court travelled into English through Old French cort from the Latin cohortem, which literally meant an enclosed yard or the people gathered in it, and from there came to mean the household and retinue surrounding a monarch. By the late 1500s the verb to court had developed from the idea of behaving as one would at a royal court: flattering, attending upon, and trying to win favour. That sense narrowed into the romantic meaning of paying amorous attention to someone with marriage in mind, and it also broadened into the figurative sense of inviting an outcome, as in courting danger. The spelling keeps the French 'our' cluster, which is the main thing to watch, since the word sounds like 'cort' but is written with the silent-looking ou. The same cohors root sits behind the modern words cohort and courtyard, a useful reminder of the original enclosed-space meaning.

How the word is built

• court (from Latin cohors/cohortem: enclosure, yard, retinue)
• -ing (present participle / gerund)