Waving

How to spell waving

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce waving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does waving mean?

1. verbMoving a hand, arm, or object back and forth, often as a greeting or signal.

Waving in a sentence

• The children were waving at the train as it pulled away.

• A steward stood at the gate, waving the cars into the field.

Where does waving come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'wave', which descends from the Old English wafian, meaning 'to move the hands to and fro' or 'to wave about'. That verb belonged to a family of Germanic words tied to swaying, fluttering motion, and it is related to 'waver', meaning to move unsteadily. The noun sense of a moving ridge of water arose somewhat later and reinforced the spelling we use today. Crucially, 'waving' shares its sound with 'waiving' (from 'waive', to give up a right), which comes by a completely different route through Anglo-Norman French; the two are unrelated despite sounding identical. Keeping the spelling fixed on the root 'wave' is the simplest way to avoid drifting into the legal 'waive'.

How the word is built

• wave (from Old English wafian: to move to and fro)
• -ing (present participle suffix)