lingering

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English linger

Proto-Germanic *-ungō

Old English -ung

Middle English -ynge

English -ing

English lingering

From linger + -ing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪŋɡəɹɪŋ/, /ˈlɪŋɡɹɪŋ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ling‧er‧ing

Noun

lingering (plural lingerings)

1. gerund of linger: an act of loitering or waiting.
   • 2000, David S. Reynolds, A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman, page 73:

     But through this insistent rhythm and rhyme, there are only questions and parenthetical pauses, interruptions and lingerings.

2. That which lingers; a remnant.
   • 1819 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Widow and Her Son”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number III, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 210:

     The lingerings of decent pride were visible in her appearance. Her dress, though humble in the extreme, was scrupulously clean.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     Whatever little lingerings may have now and then revived in my mind associated with my poor old face had only revived as belonging to a part of my life that was gone—gone like my infancy or my childhood.

Translations

act of lingering or waiting

• Irish: leadrán m
• Russian: ожидание (ru) n (ožidanije)
• Spanish: persistente (es), prolongado (es)

Verb

lingering

1. present participle and gerund of linger

Derived terms

• lingeringly
• unlingering