Protesting

How to spell protesting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce protesting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does protesting mean?

1. verbExpressing strong objection to something, often publicly.

Protesting in a sentence

• The workers were protesting the proposed cuts to their pension.

• Crowds gathered outside the building, protesting the new tax.

Where does protesting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb protestari, which literally meant 'to declare publicly' or 'to bear witness in front of others', formed from pro 'forth, before' and testari 'to witness', itself built on testis 'a witness'. The same testis root gives English the words 'testimony', 'testament', and 'attest', all of which share the idea of bearing witness. English took the verb in through Old French protester during the late 1300s, when it carried the formal sense of solemnly affirming or declaring something. Over time the meaning shifted from positively affirming to objecting and voicing disagreement, which is the dominant modern sense. The present participle 'protesting' simply adds the -ing ending; the spelling stays regular, with a single t before the suffix and no doubling, since the stress falls on the second syllable in the verb.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, publicly)
• test (from testari: to bear witness)
• -ing (present participle suffix)