Which is the formally correct spelling, dieing or dying? Is there any history of the alternative spelling? I type dieing naturally, but my spellchecker marks it wrong. This is largely an etymology question in the development of the spelling of the word dying, since when I think of dyeing I see the word meaning to stain a cloth with colors.
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I wonder why I see “ageing” and “eyeing” in good magazines, but never (e.g.) “takeing”.– Anton SherwoodMar 14, 2020 at 19:44
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1 Answer
If someone is passing away, then they are dying. Its origins are:
late 13c., "death," verbal noun from die (v.). From mid-15c. as a pp. adj., "in the process of becoming dead."
Its confusable "dieing" means:
To cut, form, or stamp with or as if with a die.
Finally, dyeing means to stain something with color, with the origins:
c.1400, verbal noun and pp. adj. from dye.
Why is dying the gerund/verb form of to die? For one thing, it follows a general rule of forming gerunds:
The vowel group -ie is changed to -y before adding -ing.
As this page also says this, it is safe to say that this is a generally accepted rule. Other similar verbs are tie and lie. It is not a special case, but I cannot find an exact date for when this rule was created. It is worth noting that, whether or not this is correct, there are early examples of the spelling dieing for dying in the 1800s. This leads to the thought that the currently accepted form is because of a spelling reform at some point in time since then.
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1Out of curiosity, is there any specific reason that die, in the cutting sense, doesn't follow the rule and become dying as well, or is it just an unexplained exception?– SamthereAug 19, 2011 at 9:59
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@Samthere Not that I could find. I wonder if it is because "to die" isn't as accepted (and came after) so it took on a different rule.– simchonaAug 19, 2011 at 10:00
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3Yeah, it seems many fewer sites mention die in that sense or dieing at all. Purely speculatively, perhaps it was introduced as an industry spelling to differentiate it.– SamthereAug 19, 2011 at 10:12
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"To cut, form, or stamp with or as if with a die." -- What does "die" refer to here? I'm assuming it's not the singular of "dice". I'm not sure how it could be "dye" (as in colour) either; I imagine that's pretty hard to cut with.– mpenJan 18, 2016 at 23:02
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2@mpen: die as a noun can either be the singular of dice, or it is a tool. Do a web search on "die tool" and look at the images. That will show you an answer better than I can with words.– Mark G BJul 26, 2017 at 18:33