Investing

How to spell investing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce investing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does investing mean?

1. verbPutting money into shares, property, or other assets in the hope of earning a return.
2. verbDevoting time, energy, or effort to something expected to be worthwhile.

Investing in a sentence

• She started investing in index funds to build a pension.

• They are investing a great deal of time in training new staff.

• Investing in property carries both risk and reward.

• Investing effort in your health pays off over the years.

Where does investing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb investire, which literally meant 'to clothe' or 'to dress in', built on the noun vestis meaning 'garment'. In medieval use the idea of clothing someone widened into formally dressing a person in the robes of office, so to invest somebody was to install them in a rank or role, a sense still alive in the phrase 'invested with authority'. The financial meaning grew separately in the early 1600s, probably influenced by the Italian investire, picturing money as being 'clothed' in a new form when it is put into a venture in the hope of returns. English speakers added the ordinary -ing ending to make the present participle and gerund, which is why the spelling keeps a single s and a single t before -ing. The same vestis root still shows up in everyday words such as 'vest' and 'vestment', and remembering that the core is simply 'vest' makes the spelling easy to hold onto.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• vest (from Latin vestis: clothing)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)