longing

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɒŋɪŋ
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔːŋɪŋ/

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From Middle English longynge, langynge, langand, from Old English langiende, from Proto-Germanic *langōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *langōną (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long +‎ -ing (present participle ending).

longing

1. present participle and gerund of long

From Middle English longinge, langynge, from Old English longung, langung (“longing, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *langungō, gerund of Proto-Germanic *langōną (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long +‎ -ing (gerund ending).

longing (plural longings)

1. An earnest and deep, not greatly passionate, but rather melancholic desire.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 132, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     all natural lovings and longings

   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 2:

     For round the valley a great desert lies through which no common traveller may come, but those whom the gods have chosen feel suddenly a great longing at heart, and crossing the mountains that divide the desert from the world, set out across it driven by the gods, […]

2. The buying of a financial instrument with the expectation that its value will rise

• yearning

• longing mark

• long

• desire
• miss