Present participle of defecate; the ongoing action of eliminating waste from the body.
From Latin 'defaecare' plus the English present participle suffix '-ing.' The construction allows the verb to function as a gerund or continuous action marker.
The -ing form creates a grammatical distance from the crude reality—we say 'defecating' in medical settings the same way we say 'precipitating' or 'sedimenting' in chemistry, making bodily functions sound like interesting scientific processes.
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