Meddling

How to spell meddling

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce meddling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does meddling mean?

1. verbInterfering in matters that are not one's own concern.

Meddling in a sentence

• Her constant meddling in the project annoyed the whole team.

• He accused his neighbour of meddling in private family affairs.

Where does meddling come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows out of the verb 'meddle', which English took from the Old French 'medler' (also spelled 'mesler'), meaning 'to mix' or 'to mingle'. That Old French verb descended from the Vulgar Latin 'misculare', a form built on the classical Latin 'miscere', meaning simply 'to mix'. When the word arrived in English in the 1300s it still carried this idea of mixing things together, but it gradually narrowed to the sense of mixing yourself into matters that are none of your business. The same 'miscere' root also gives us 'miscellaneous' and 'mixture', so the underlying notion of stirring things together runs through the whole family. The doubled 'd' in 'meddle' is the spelling trap, and it survives into 'meddling', which keeps that double consonant before the '-ing'.

How the word is built

• meddl- (from meddle: to mix or interfere)
• -ing (forming a gerund/adjective)