Lifting

How to spell lifting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lifting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lifting mean?

1. verbRaising or hoisting something to a higher position, or the act of doing so.

Lifting in a sentence

• Lifting heavy boxes all afternoon left her shoulders aching.

• The new gym programme concentrates on lifting free weights.

Where does lifting come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is the -ing form of the verb 'lift', which English borrowed from Old Norse during the Viking settlement of northern and eastern England. The source was the Norse verb 'lypta', meaning 'to raise into the air' or 'to hoist', and that in turn grew from a root connected to 'lopt', the word for 'air' or 'the sky above'. So at its heart 'lifting' literally describes moving something up toward the air. The word settled into English in the medieval period and broadened from purely physical raising to figurative senses such as lifting a ban, lifting spirits, or lifting a quotation from a text. The spelling is wholly regular: keep the single 'f' and 't' of 'lift' and simply add '-ing', with no doubling because the base already ends in a consonant cluster.

How the word is built

• lift (from Old Norse lypta: to raise, hoist)
• -ing (verbal noun / present participle suffix)