Flyinge

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Movement through the air on wings or by an aircraft, as an archaic spelling of the act of taking to the sky
2. An old form of the word for travelling through the air by wings, or by an aircraft, in the manner of flight
3. Archaic spelling denoting the motion of a creature or machine soaring through the air above the ground

Etymology: "Flyinge" is a Middle English spelling of "flying," the present participle of "fly." The Old English verb was "flēogan," which meant to move through the air on wings, and its participle was "flēogende." Over the Middle English period the final "-ende" wore down to "-ing" and "-inge," and spellings like this one reflect that change, with the "-inge" ending keeping the older "-ing" sound. The verb itself goes back to a Germanic root shared with modern Dutch "vliegen" and German "fliegen," so the word has been used for flight in these languages for well over a thousand years. The past tense "flew" comes from the Old English past form "fleow," which shows the same root behaving as a strong verb, changing its vowel to mark tense rather than adding an ending.