aborning

1 of 2

adverb

aborn·​ing ə-ˈbȯr-niŋ 

: while being born or produced

a resolution that died aborning

aborning

2 of 2

adjective

: being born or produced

the aborning fiasco

Did you know?

Aborning is a native of U.S. soil; its arrival is marked in the early 20th century dialect of the rural South, and it quickly found its way to the crowded cities and towns of the industrial north. (We don't know exactly when it was conceived, but it came to the attention of the editors at Merriam-Webster in 1916.) "Aborning" combines the prefix a-, meaning "in the process of," and "borning," a dialectal word meaning "birth." "Borning" itself is simply the gerund, or noun form, of the verb "born," a term that was used by, among others, William Faulkner: "The talk ... went here and there about the town, dying and borning again like a wind or a fire" (Light in August, 1932).

Synonyms

Adjective

• budding
• inceptive
• inchoate
• incipient
• nascent

Examples of aborning in a Sentence

Adjective

the new governor will have to deal with the state's aborning fiscal crisis

Word History

Etymology

Adverb

a- entry 1 + born (taken as a simple verb) + -ing entry 3

Adjective

derivative of aborning entry 1

First Known Use

Adverb

1837, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1943, in the meaning defined above

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