Word origin
[1890–95, for earlier sense “homestead”;
homestead +
-ing1]This word is first recorded in the period 1890–95. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: cholesterol, neoclassicism, phoneme, takedown, wireless-ing is a suffix of nouns formed from verbs, expressing the action of the verb or itsresult, product, material, etc. (the art of building; a new building; cotton wadding). It is also used to form nouns from words other than verbs (offing; shirting). Verbal nouns ending in -ing are often used attributively (the printing trade) and in forming compounds (drinking song). In some compounds (sewing machine), the first element might reasonably be regarded as the participial adjective, -ing, the compound thus meaning “a machine that sews,” but it is commonly taken as a verbalnoun, the compound being explained as “a machine for sewing”