The present participle of 'fond' used as a verb, describing the act of being affectionate or caressing something.
From 'fond' (verb) plus the progressive suffix '-ing,' which is the oldest productive verb suffix in English. 'Fond' as a verb is now archaic but appears in older literature.
Progressive forms like 'fonding' show that even archaic verbs follow English's consistent pattern of adding '-ing' for ongoing actions—this is why you can read 300-year-old texts and still understand the grammatical structure, even if the words feel old-fashioned.
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