Displaying

How to spell displaying

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce displaying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does displaying mean?

1. verbPresenting or showing something so that it can be clearly seen.

Displaying in a sentence

• The museum is displaying its new collection in the main hall.

• The monitor kept displaying an error message during the meeting.

Where does displaying come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin displicare, which literally meant 'to unfold' or 'to scatter', built from the prefix dis- meaning 'apart' and the verb plicare meaning 'to fold'. Soldiers were said to displicare a banner by unfolding it to the wind, and this military image of spreading something out for all to see carried the sense forward. The verb reached English in the 1300s through the Old French desploier, with the early meaning of unfurling a flag or sail. Over time the idea of literally unfolding faded and the broader notion of putting something on show took over, giving us the modern sense of presenting or exhibiting. The same plicare root, meaning 'to fold', also hides inside relatives such as 'reply' and 'deploy', which is a useful reminder that the middle of the word is spelled play, not 'splay'.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• play (from Latin plicare: to fold)
• -ing (present participle)