Dwellynge

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. An abode or home where a person or family lives ; the process of staying and living in a particular place
2. A house, room, or other shelter that serves as someone's residence ; the continued act of making one's home somewhere
3. Somewhere a person makes their home ; the state or action of inhabiting a place over a period of time

Etymology: "Dwellynge" is a Middle English spelling of "dwelling," the noun from the verb "dwell." The verb goes back to Old English "dwellan," meaning to lead astray, delay, or hinder, which is a sense the modern word has lost. Only later did it shift toward staying in one place, and the sense of living somewhere came after that. That older meaning of error or going astray survives in the nearby idea of getting lost in a thought. The noun followed the same path: a "dwelling" was first the act of lingering or staying, and only later a house or place where someone lives. The "-ing" ending turns the verb into a noun, the ordinary pattern for forming nouns from verbs in English. The spelling with "y" and the doubled "l" belongs to the medieval scribes who wrote the word before English spelling was standardized.