Embarking

How to spell embarking

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce embarking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embarking mean?

1. verbBeginning a significant new undertaking, journey, or course of action.
2. verbGoing aboard a ship, boat, or aircraft for a voyage or flight.

Embarking in a sentence

• After years of saving, they were finally embarking on a complete kitchen renovation.

• Passengers embarking at the southern port must show their tickets at the gangway.

• She felt nervous about embarking on a career change at fifty.

• Crowds of travellers were embarking the ferry as the storm cleared.

Where does embarking come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'embark', which English took from the French embarquer in the sixteenth century. The French word was built from the prefix em- meaning 'to put into' and barque, a word for a small sailing ship that itself descends from the Late Latin barca, meaning 'boat'. The literal idea was therefore 'to put aboard a boat', the opposite of 'disembark', which means to step off again. Over time the word stretched beyond the harbour, so that by the seventeenth century people spoke of embarking on any new venture or course of action, not just a voyage. The hidden 'bark' inside it is the same nautical word seen in poetry for a sailing vessel, and remembering that ship helps keep the single 'b' and 'k' spelling straight.

How the word is built

• em- (to put into)
• bark (from barque, a small ship)
• -ing (present participle)