Experiencing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of going through various situations that contribute to learning or personal development
2. The state of being part of circumstances or encounters that foster growth and awareness
3. Being involved in events or situations that provide knowledge or skills from actual involvement

Etymology: "Experiencing" is the present participle of "experience," so its story is really the story of the verb behind it. The root idea is testing, not feeling. Latin "experiri" meant "to try, put to the test, undertake," and its present participle "experiens" gave Latin "experientia," a word for a trial, a proof, or practical knowledge gained by trying something out. The prefix "ex-" means "out," and the second element traces back to "peritus," meaning "experienced" or "expert," the same stock that gives English "expert" and "peril." An experience, in other words, was once something you went through in the way a traveller passes through danger. English borrowed the noun through Old French in the Middle English period, and the older English word for the idea, "āfandung," was eventually displaced. The sense of undergoing events as a personal matter came along with the noun, so that to experience something meant to live through it. The verb's modern sense of having feelings or perceptions grew out of that meaning of passing through.

Synonyms: undergoing, encountering, facing, living, sensing

Antonyms: avoiding, escaping, ignoring, neglecting, shunning