Uttering

Uttering

Present Participle · /ˈʌtərɪŋ/ · the act of speaking, expressing, or vocalising something at this moment

Definition

Uttering is the present participle of the verb utter. It describes the ongoing act of speaking, pronouncing, or making a vocal sound. She was uttering a prayer. He kept uttering the same phrase over and over. As a gerund, it can also function as a noun: the uttering of falsehoods is a serious matter. The word focuses attention on the speech act as it happens.

Origin

Uttering follows the regular grammatical formation of adding -ing to utter, which came from Middle Dutch uteren — to make outward, to announce. In legal English, uttering has a specific meaning: the crime of presenting or circulating a forged document knowing it to be false. Uttering a forged cheque. This legal sense has been in use since at least the seventeenth century and adds a second dimension to the word beyond ordinary speech.