Farming

How to spell farming

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce farming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does farming mean?

1. nounThe activity or business of growing crops and raising livestock.

Farming in a sentence

• Farming has supported his family for three generations.

• The region depends on farming for most of its income.

Where does farming come from?

Language of origin: French

The root word 'farm' came into English in the 1200s from Old French 'ferme', meaning a fixed rent or lease, which itself traced back to the Latin verb 'firmare', 'to make firm or settle', and the adjective 'firmus', 'firm or steady'. At first a 'farm' in English meant the fixed annual payment a tenant owed for land, not the land itself; only later, by the 1500s, did the word slide across to mean the leased agricultural holding and then the act of working it. The suffix '-ing' was added in the ordinary native way to turn the verb 'to farm' into the noun naming the activity. The same Latin 'firmus' lies behind 'firm', 'confirm', and 'firmament', a useful reminder that the spelling keeps a plain single 'r' and a single 'm' before the ending. Because the base word is so familiar, the spelling rarely troubles adults beyond remembering not to double anything.

How the word is built

• farm (cultivated land/business of agriculture)
• -ing (noun/gerund and present-participle suffix)