Other forms: runnings
Running is the sport of moving fast on foot — and also the managing of something. Two senses that share a word and nothing else.
The sport is the commoner sense, and it brings a vocabulary with it: distance running, a running shoe, going for a run. The managing sense appears in the running of a business, the day-to-day running of a department, and running costs. As an adjective it means continuous, so a running commentary and a running joke both carry on. In the running means still with a chance of winning.
1nounrunningThe activity of moving quickly on foot as exercise or sport.~92%
“She took up running after her fortieth birthday.”
2nounmanagementThe management or operation of something.~8%
“He handles the day-to-day running of the office.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense (8 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃er-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reyH- — to boil, churn
Proto-Germanic
*rinnaną — to run
Old Norse
rinna — to run
Old English
rinnan
Middle English
runnen
English
run
English, today
running
Built from
by surface analysis, run + -ing. run comes from Middle English runnen, rennen (“to run”), alteration (due to the past participle runne, runnen, yronne) of Middle English rinnen (“to run”), from Old English rinnan, iernan (“to run”) and Old Norse rinna (“to run”), both from Proto-Germanic rinnaną (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European h₃reyH- (“to boil, churn”). Cognate with Scots rin (“to run”), West Frisian rinne (“to walk, march”), archaic Dutch rinnen (“to flow”, still in geronnen), German rinnen (“to flow”), Swedish rinna (“to flow”), and Icelandic renna (“to flow”). From the causative rannijaną (“to make run”) are Dutch rennen, German rennen, Danish rende, Swedish ränna (all “to run”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian rend (“to run, run after”), Persian راندن (“to move, set in motion”). See also random.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA