Waking

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪkɪŋ/

Definitions

1. The transition from a state of immobility during sleep to a heightened state of awareness and alertness occurs when one becomes aware of their surroundings
2. When an individual moves from the unconsciousness of sleep to a conscious state of perception, they engage with their environment for the first time
3. The process of moving from sleep to being fully aware of one's environment

Etymology: "Waking" is simply the present participle and gerund of "wake", so its history is the history of that verb. Here the story is a merger: English ended up with a single verb from two older ones of similar shape and meaning. Old English had "wacan" (to become awake, to rouse oneself) and "wacian" (to watch, to keep vigil), both descending from Proto-Germanic roots. Over the Middle English period these blended, and the combined verb carried both senses at once, which is why "wake" can mean both to stop sleeping and to hold a vigil over a body. The verb's ancestry runs in a separate line through the noun "wake", which came from Old English "wacu", meaning a watch or a period of wakefulness. That noun was also used for the watch kept over a dead person, the origin of the modern funeral wake. Adding "-ing" to the verb produced "waking", which for centuries has been used both as an ordinary verb form and as a noun for the act of coming out of sleep.

Synonyms: awaking, rising, getting up

Antonyms: sleeping, dozing