During

Part of speech: preposition

Pronunciation: /ˈdʒʊəɹɪŋ/

Definitions

1. At a certain point in time when something occurs
2. Within the time frame of an activity or event
3. Referring to the time span while an event or action is happening

Etymology: "During" began as a verb form. In Middle English, "duren" meant "to last," and "during" was its present participle, so the word literally meant "lasting." Phrases like "during the day" once carried the sense of "the day lasting," with the period of time as something that endures. Over time the participle hardened into a preposition, the grammatical use that now dominates, and the sense of ongoing duration narrowed to "in the course of" or "while." The verb behind it, "dure," reached English from Old French, and it ultimately traces back to Latin "durare," meaning "to harden" or "to last," the same source as "endure." That makes "during" a close relative of "endure," though the two split into separate words that now feel quite different. The word has a close cousin across the Channel: Dutch "gedurende" carries the same meaning and shows the same pattern of a participle used as a preposition.

Synonyms: throughout, in, while, amid, in the course of