Spitting

How to spell spitting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spitting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spitting mean?

1. verbForcibly ejecting saliva or other matter from the mouth.
2. verbRaining very lightly, in scattered fine drops.

Spitting in a sentence

• The toddler kept spitting out the broccoli onto the floor.

• It was spitting with rain when she stepped off the train.

• The llama warned the visitors by spitting at the fence.

• The sky had been spitting all morning, so he kept the umbrella handy.

Where does spitting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'spit', which traces back to the Old English 'spittan', meaning to eject saliva or matter forcibly from the mouth. The root is imitative in origin, a so-called echoic word whose very sound mimics the sharp action it names, much like 'spew' and 'sputter', which share the same expressive 'sp-' beginning. Related forms appear across the older Germanic languages, all built on the same noisy gesture. When the verb takes its '-ing' ending, the single final 't' doubles because it follows a short, stressed vowel, the same rule that turns 'sit' into 'sitting' and 'hit' into 'hitting'. That doubling is the only real spelling decision here, and it is the point where writers occasionally slip and leave a single t.

How the word is built

• spit (to eject from the mouth)
• -ing (present participle suffix); the t doubles after a short stressed vowel