Updating

How to spell updating

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce updating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does updating mean?

1. verbBringing something up to date by adding the latest information or making it current.

Updating in a sentence

• The technician is updating the software on every laptop in the office.

• She spent the afternoon updating the spreadsheet with this quarter's figures.

Where does updating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'update', a relatively modern compound that joined the old word 'up' with 'date'. The 'date' part comes through Old French and ultimately from the Latin phrase data littera, meaning 'letter given', where data was a form of dare, 'to give'; Roman documents recorded the time and place a letter was 'given', and from that habit 'date' came to mean a point in time. The combination 'up to date' appeared in English in the nineteenth century to describe something current, and from it the single verb 'update' was coined in the early twentieth century, meaning to bring something current. The 'ing' form follows the standard English rule of dropping the silent final 'e' before the suffix, which is exactly why we write 'updating' rather than 'updateing'. The word spread quickly with computing and news media, where information constantly needs refreshing.

How the word is built

• up- (newer, current)
• date (point in time)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)