different between yearning vs languishing

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?j?n??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?j??n??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)n??
• Hyphenation: yearn?ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English yerning, from Old English ?ierning, ?ierninge. Equivalent to the gerund (yearn + -ing). yearn comes from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan, from Proto-Germanic *girnijan?, from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) + *-jan?, from Proto-Indo-European *??er- (“to yearn for”).

Noun

yearning (plural yearnings)

1. A wistful or melancholy longing.

   She had a yearning to see her long-lost sister again.

Related terms

• yearn

Translations

Verb

yearning

1. Present participle and gerund of yearn.

Etymology 2

From earlier yerning, from Middle English yernyng, erning, renning. From Old English rynning and gerunnen, geurnen (“run together, coagulated, curdled”), past participles of gerinnan, geirnan, respectively. Influenced by Middle English yern (“to (cause to) coagulate or curdle”), Old English iernan (“to run, flow”), metathesized forms derived from the same origin. From verbal prefix ge- + rinnan (“to run”). First element is from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *?óm (“with, by”); second element is from Proto-Germanic *rinnan?, from Proto-Indo-European *h?r?-néw-ti, from *h?er- (“to move”). Doublet of rennet, run.

Noun

yearning (countable and uncountable, plural yearnings)

1. (Scotland, archaic) rennet (an enzyme to curdle milk in order to make cheese).

Related terms

• yearn
• earn
• rennet

Anagrams

• renaying

English

Adjective

languishing

1. lacking of vigor or spirit.

Verb

languishing

1. present participle of languish

Noun

languishing (plural languishings)

1. The act of one who languishes.
   • 1680, Thomas Otway, The Orphan

     Happy, Monimia, he to whom these sighs, / These tears, and all these languishings, are paid!