Etymology

fleeting

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Today it means: Passing quickly; of short duration. Full definition →

Middle English fleten ← Old English flēotan ← Proto-Germanic *fleutaną
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*plewd-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*fleutaną
  3. Old English · inherited fromflēotan“to float”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromfleten“to float”
  5. English todayfleeting

From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English flēotan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-. By surface analysis, fleet + -ing.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishfleten all →

fleet

Old Englishflēotan all →

fleet

Proto-Germanic*fleutaną all →

fleet

Proto-Indo-European*plewd- all →

leadfloatflatterflit

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.