linger
pronunciation
How to pronounce linger in British English:
UK [ˈlɪŋɡə(r)]
How to pronounce linger in American English:
US [ˈlɪŋɡər]
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- Verb:
- remain present although waning or gradually dying
- be about
- leave slowly and hesitantly
- take one's time; proceed slowly
- move to and fro
Word Origin
- linger
- linger: [13] Etymologically, to linger is to remain ‘longer’ than one should. Like its relatives, German längen and Dutch lengen, it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *langgjan ‘lengthen’. In Old Norse this became lengja, which was borrowed into English in the 10th century as leng. By now, ‘lengthen’ had progressed metaphorically via ‘prolong’ to ‘delay’, which is what it meant when linger was derived from it in the 13th century.=> long
- linger (v.)
- c. 1300, lenger "reside, dwell," northern England frequentative of lengen "to tarry," from Old English lengan "prolong, lengthen," from Proto-Germanic *langjan "to make long" (cognates: Old Frisian lendza, Old High German lengan, Dutch lengen "to lengthen"), source of Old English lang (see long (adj.)). Sense of "delay going, depart slowly and unwillingly" is from 1520s. Related: Lingered; lingering.
Example
- 1. That stuff can linger for months .
- 2. Still , price effects could linger .
- 3. National incomes in some advanced countries still linger below pre-crisis levels .
- 4. Control the rhythm and pace of your movements and linger in the entrance .
- 5. And sometimes the political consequences linger longer than the economic , and thus have an effect on the economic .