Depressing

How to spell depressing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce depressing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does depressing mean?

1. adjectiveCausing a feeling of sadness, gloom, or low spirits.

Depressing in a sentence

• The constant rain made the whole holiday feel depressing.

• Reading the quarterly figures was a depressing experience for the entire team.

Where does depressing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb deprimere, meaning 'to press down' or 'to push low', formed from de- 'down' and premere 'to press'. The past participle stem depressus gave the sense of being weighed down or lowered, both physically and in spirit. English took it in through Old French depresser during the late Middle Ages, at first for literally forcing something downward, and only later for lowering someone's mood or energy. The same premere root sits inside familiar relatives like 'press', 'compress', and 'pressure', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the double s of 'press' intact. By the nineteenth century 'depressing' had settled firmly into its modern emotional meaning of casting gloom over people.

How the word is built

• de- (down)
• press (to press, from Latin premere)
• -ing (adjective/participle suffix)