Yearning
nounA strong, often wistful feeling of longing or desire for something.
How to spell yearning
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce yearning
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does yearning mean?
- nounA strong, often wistful feeling of longing or desire for something.
- verbFeeling an intense longing or desire for something.
Yearning in a sentence
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noun
A deep yearning for home overcame her during the long posting abroad.
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verb
He spent the whole winter yearning for warmer weather and a holiday.
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noun
His yearning for a stable career finally pushed him to retrain.
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verb
She was yearning to return to the small town where she grew up.
Where does yearning come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word grows from the Old English verb giernan (also written gyrnan), meaning 'to long for, to desire eagerly'. That verb traces back to a Proto-Germanic root and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European base meaning roughly 'to like, to want, to feel warm toward', which also lies behind words about pleasure and desire in other languages. Over the centuries the spelling drifted from the older 'gi-' opening to the modern 'ye-', and the sound settled into the long vowel we now hear. The '-ing' ending then produced both the present participle of the verb and the noun for the feeling itself. The spelling trap is real: the 'ear' cluster represents a vowel sound that gives no hint of the silent reshuffling, so writers sometimes reach for 'yerning' or 'earning' by ear alone.
How the word is built
- yearn (Old English giernan: to long for)
- -ing (noun/verb suffix)
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