Stirring

How to spell stirring

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stirring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stirring mean?

1. verbMoving a substance around, typically with a spoon, to mix it or stop it settling.
2. adjectiveCausing strong emotions such as excitement, pride, or enthusiasm; rousing.

Stirring in a sentence

• verb

  She kept stirring the sauce so it would not stick to the pan.

• adjective

  The coach gave a stirring speech before the final match.

• verb

  He was stirring his coffee while reading the morning report.

• adjective

  The film ended with a stirring orchestral score that moved the audience.

Where does stirring come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb styrian, which meant 'to move, to set in motion, or to agitate', and it belongs to a wider family of Germanic words about disturbance and movement. The root sense was very physical: to push something about so that it shifts or churns, much as a spoon moves liquid in a pot. Over the centuries the literal kitchen sense sat happily alongside a figurative one, so that a speech or a piece of music could 'stir' the feelings just as a hand stirs a mixture. The adjective use, meaning rousing or emotionally moving, was well established by the seventeenth century. The spelling trap lies entirely in the ending: the short vowel in 'stir' forces the final r to double before -ing, giving the familiar double-r that writers sometimes drop.

How the word is built

• stir (from Old English styrian: to move, agitate)
• doubled r
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)