From Newsgroup: sci.lang



I had a question concerning the word 'concerning.'
Briefly I encounter the "new" meaning of 'concerning'
almost every day -- a meaning I don't recall ever hearing in the
20th century. (I'd spent years in a non-English country with
limited Internet, perhaps making this transition more
apparent to me.)

But the Discussion at Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:concerning
has more-or-less answered my question, so I'm posting here only
in case sci.lang experts want to shed further interesting light.

Skip the next section to get to the real question.

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I am ONLY interested in the first adjective definition of
'concerning' but I did "go down a rabbit-hole" to examine several
'-ing' words at Wiktionary. The notation "singing 1-2-4-0",
for example, means that Wiktionary gives 7 definitions of
"singing", of which 1 is a verb, 2 adjectives, 4 nouns, and
zero prepositions.

Verb-Adjective-Noun-Preposition
arriving - 1-1-0-0
sleeping - 1-2-1-0
singing - 1-2-4-0
kicking - 1-3-4-0 of which 0-3-1-0 are slang
resolving - 1-0-1-0
regarding - 1-0-1-1
concerning - 1-2-1-1 of which 0-1-1-0 are obsolete (or poss. archaic) concerning - 1-1-0-1 [in Webster]

Webster lacks individual entries for most '-ing' words but it did show 'concerning' (and 'concerningly') with the definitions similar to
Wiktionary's but with the obsolete and possibly archaic meanings
omitted.
(BTW, 'concerning' and 'regarding' are synonyms, each shown as a
preposition. But aren't there other words, e.g. 'resolving' that
could similarly be treated as prepositions?
"Resolving George's complaint, the Chair reopened the hearing."
)

I took a further detour from the rabbit hole and recorded the
definition counts in older versions of Wiktionary:
'concerning' history
2004-2007: 0-0-0-1
2007-2007: 1-0-0-1
2008-2012: 1-1-0-1
2013-2013: 1-2-0-1
2014-2026: 1-2-1-1

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Without further ado, here are abbreviated definitions of
'concerning' from Wiktionary:

Adjective:
- 1 - Causing concern, worrisome ("It's very concerning that our
neighbour seems to be crying very loudly these days.")
- 2 - (obsolete) Important ("So great and so concerning truth"
in 12 sermons by Robt. South)
Preposition:
- 1 - Regarding ("The Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel."
In Numbers, KJV)
Verb:
- 1 - Pres. part. & gerund of concern
Noun:
- 1 - That which one is concerned in; one's business ("We shall
write to you, As me and our Concernings shall importune ..."
in Measure for Measure)
Is this Noun definition possibly archaic? Wiktionary does NOT say so.

I clicked on Wiktionary's Talk tab and found a discussion from 2009:

The first [Adjective] definition, in my opinion, is non-standard usage.
Recently, I'm frequently hearing "concerning" in this context:
"This trend is very concerning." However, this usage is very recently
in widespread use, perhaps only in the last few years. I hear it most on Fox News.
However, I don't believe it's a "worthy" use of the word. I'd like to know what
the authoritative references are. Please provide the information with citations.
This is a pet peeve of mine.

It appears in a recent (2008) and notable Handbook of Clinical Psychology,
so the usage has reached academic circles. --EncycloPetey 04:29, 10 June 2009

I was happy to see that "concerning" as a synonym of "worrisome" wasn't unfamiliar only to me.

The new meaning of "concerning" strikes me as an example of the
rapidity of language change.

Comments?

Cheers,
JamesDowAllen (Gmail)
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