Touching

How to spell touching

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce touching

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does touching mean?

1. adjectiveArousing tender emotion such as sympathy, affection, or gratitude.
2. verbPresent participle of touch: bringing a part of the body or an object into physical contact with something.

Touching in a sentence

• adjective

  The retirement speech was a touching tribute to her decades of service.

• verb

  The technician warned us against touching the wires while the power was on.

• adjective

  He wrote a touching note thanking the nurses who cared for his father.

• verb

  She kept touching the fresh paint to see whether it had dried.

Where does touching come from?

Language of origin: French

The base verb 'touch' came into English in the 1200s from the Old French 'touchier' (also spelled 'tochier'), meaning 'to touch, to handle, or to hit'. That French verb descended from the Vulgar Latin 'toccare', which originally meant 'to knock or strike', perhaps echoing the very sound of a tap or a struck bell. Over time the harsh sense of striking softened into the gentle modern idea of physical contact, and from there into the figurative sense of being emotionally affected, as if the heart had been physically reached. The participle 'touching' developed both literally, for making contact, and figuratively, for something that stirs tender feeling, a usage well established by the 1500s. The same 'toccare' root also gave Italian 'toccata', a piece for keyboard meant to show off the player's 'touch', a neat reminder that the silent-looking '-ch-' spelling traces straight back to French and not to any Germanic origin.

How the word is built

• touch (from Old French touchier, to touch)
• -ing (forming present participle/adjective)