Hurting

How to spell hurting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hurting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hurting mean?

1. verbCausing physical or emotional pain, or experiencing such pain.

Hurting in a sentence

• My lower back has been hurting since the long flight.

• The new shoes were hurting her heels by the end of the day.

Where does hurting come from?

Language of origin: French

The base verb 'hurt' arrived in English in the 1100s from Old French 'hurter', meaning 'to knock against, to collide with', a sense that survives in the related modern French 'heurter'. The French verb itself probably grew from a Germanic root suggesting a ram or a butting motion, which is why the earliest English meaning leaned toward striking or dashing one thing against another. Over time the emphasis shifted from the collision itself to the damage and pain that follow a blow, giving us the familiar senses of injuring the body and wounding the feelings. The form 'hurting' is simply that verb carrying the ordinary '-ing' ending used to make present participles and verbal nouns. Because the root keeps a single 't', the spelling stays regular: you double nothing and add the ending directly, so the only thing to remember is the plain 'hurt' plus '-ing'.

How the word is built

• hurt (to cause or feel pain)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)