Rescuing

How to spell rescuing

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rescuing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rescuing mean?

1. verbSaving or freeing a person, animal, or thing from danger, harm, or difficulty.

Rescuing in a sentence

• Rescuing the stranded climbers took the team most of the night.

• The charity spends its funds on rescuing abandoned dogs from the streets.

Where does rescuing come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the Old French rescourre, meaning to free or deliver someone from danger or captivity. That verb was built from the prefix re-, here acting as an intensifier, combined with escourre, meaning to shake out or drive away. Those parts trace further back to the Latin excutere, literally to shake off or shake out, formed from ex- meaning out and quatere meaning to shake. English adopted the word in the 1300s, and over time the sense narrowed from generally freeing to the modern idea of saving someone from harm. The spelling trap arrives when the suffix is added: the final e of rescue is dropped before -ing, giving rescuing rather than the tempting but wrong rescueing.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• scue (from escourre: to shake out, free)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)