The story
- Old English · inherited fromrotung
- Middle English · inherited fromrotynge“rotting”
- English todayrotting
From Middle English rotynge (“rotting”), from Old English rotung; equivalent to rot + -ing. Conflated with Middle English rotende, present participle of roten (“to rot”), from Old English rotiende, present participle of rotian (“to rot”).
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishrotynge all →
rooting
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.