Upbringing

How to spell upbringing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce upbringing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does upbringing mean?

1. nounThe treatment and instruction a child receives from parents or guardians throughout childhood.

Upbringing in a sentence

• Her strict upbringing taught her to value punctuality and hard work.

• A rural upbringing gave him a lasting respect for nature and quiet.

Where does upbringing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound, built entirely from Germanic roots that go back to Old English. The verb 'bring', from Old English bringan, meaning 'to carry, lead, or convey toward', combined with the particle 'up' to form 'bring up', a phrase used since the 1500s for the rearing of children. The noun 'upbringing', meaning the way a person is reared and educated through childhood, is recorded from the early 1500s and reflects the same image of a child being 'brought up' toward adulthood. The spelling is straightforward once you see that it is simply 'up' plus 'bringing', with the single 'g' of 'bring' carried through. Because it is a genuine compound rather than a borrowing, there are no silent letters or foreign quirks, just the doubled visual of the two endings 'ing' that occasionally trips writers up.

How the word is built

• up (upward, adverbial particle)
• bring (to rear or raise)
• -ing (noun-forming suffix)