interesting (English)

Where does "interesting" come from?

The English word 'interesting' is a suffixal construction formed by adding the suffix 'ing' to the word 'interest'[1]. The base term 'interest' descends from Middle English and Old French 'interesse' or 'interest', which trace back to the Medieval Latin 'interesse'[2]. This Latin root is a combination of 'inter' and 'esse'[19]. While the suffix 'ing' stems from Middle English and Old English forms[3], and 'interest' involves an ancient linguistic lineage stretching to Proto-Indo-European roots for 'between' and 'to be'[11][12], the specific modern word 'interesting' is a direct morphological product of combining these components[1].

Open questions

• The derivation of the suffix ing from Old English might involve either a direct inheritance from Proto-Germanic or a borrowing from Old Norse. [3] [5] [9]

Full etymology tree

• interesting (English), 'present participle and gerund of interest'
  • derived interest (English), 'The price paid for obtaining, or price received for providing, money or goods in a credit transaction, calculated as a fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed.'
    • inherited interest (Middle English)
      • inherited interesse (Old French)
        • inherited interesse (Latin), 'present active infinitive of intersum'
          • compound inter (Latin), 'between, among'
            • inherited *ənter (Proto-Italic), 'between'
              • inherited *h₁entér (Proto-Indo-European), 'between'
                • compound *h₁en (Proto-Indo-European)
                • compound *-tér (Proto-Indo-European)
          • compound esse (Latin), 'present active infinitive of sum'
            • inherited *h₁es- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to be'
              • derived *h₁eh₁s- (Proto-Indo-European)
  • suffix -ing (English), 'Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.'

Ancestors

• interest (English)
• ing (English)

Sources

1. interesting (English) - Wiktionary
2. interest (English) - Wiktionary
3. ing (English) - Wiktionary
4. h₁es- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
5. ing (Old English) - Wiktionary
6. intersum (Latin) - Wiktionary
7. angijō (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
8. h₂énkos (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
9. eng (Old Norse) - Wiktionary
10. sum (Latin) - Wiktionary
11. inter (Latin) - Wiktionary
12. h₁ésti (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
13. ezom (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
14. h₁entér (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
15. ənter (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
16. bʰúHt (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
17. fio (Latin) - Wiktionary
18. fore (Latin) - Wiktionary
19. intérêt (French) - Wiktionary
20. h₁énteros (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

More words starting with I

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris