Present participle of 'hew'; the act of chopping or shaping something with an axe or similar tool.
Regular present participle formation from 'hew,' adding '-ing' (Old English '-ing' or '-ung'). The '-ing' ending transforms verbs into gerunds or continuous forms and has been productive since Old English.
The '-ing' suffix is one of English's greatest gifts—it lets us talk about actions as ongoing or as nouns ('hewing' as a skill or trade), a flexibility that languages like French or Spanish struggle with using different constructions.
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