The act of breaking up and moving earth or soil, either literally with tools or figuratively by searching for information or understanding.
From Old Norse 'dikja' meaning 'to dig a ditch.' The word entered Middle English and took on both literal (breaking earth) and figurative (searching, investigating) meanings. The '-ing' suffix marks the present participle form.
Digging has been such a fundamental human activity that our words for it have roots in multiple ancient languages—Norse, Germanic, and Proto-Indo-European all have 'dig' words. Archaeologically, digging is literally how we uncover human history, making the action and the knowledge of the past inseparable.
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