Texting

How to spell texting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce texting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does texting mean?

1. verbThe act of sending short written messages from a mobile phone.

Texting in a sentence

• Texting during the meeting is frowned upon at the office.

• She warned her teenager that texting while driving is dangerous.

Where does texting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a very modern word built on a very old root. The noun 'text' comes from the Latin textus, meaning 'a woven thing' or 'a thing put together', from the verb texere 'to weave'. The Romans used that image of weaving threads into cloth as a metaphor for weaving words into a written passage, which is how textus came to mean a piece of writing. English took the word in through Old French during the 1300s for the actual words of a book or document, as opposed to commentary or pictures. The verb 'to text', meaning to send a short written message from a mobile phone, only appeared in the late 1990s and early 2000s as text messaging spread, and 'texting' is simply its present participle and gerund. The same texere root is woven into 'textile', 'texture', and 'context', a handy reminder that texting keeps the plain 'text' spelling with a straightforward -ing on the end.

How the word is built

• text (from Latin textus: woven thing, written word)
• -ing (verb/gerund suffix)