barking
UK[ˈbɑːkɪŋ]US[ˈbɑːrkɪŋ]
adj
(informal) Used to emphasize that someone is completely mad or irrational.
n
The action or sound of a dog making a short, loud cry.
Morpheme Breakdown
bark
ing
bark
sound of a dog
ing
adjective/gerund suffix
Etymology
The word 'barking' originates from the Old English verb 'beorcan', an onomatopoeic term imitating the sharp, loud cry of a dog. The addition of the '-ing' suffix, a productive Germanic grammatical element, creates a present participle, gerund, or adjective. The informal adjectival sense, as in 'barking mad', emerged in 20th-century British slang, employing the image of a dog's frantic, senseless noise as a metaphor for extreme and irrational human behavior. This evolution demonstrates how a concrete, sound-based root can develop an abstract, figurative meaning through common idiomatic usage.
Analysis
Structure: bark (sound of a dog) + ing (adjective/gerund suffix)
bark: From Old English 'beorcan', meaning 'to bark'. Its ultimate origin is imitative (onomatopoeic) of the sound itself.
ing: A suffix of Germanic origin (Old English '-ing', '-ung') used to form nouns from verbs (gerunds) or adjectives denoting a characteristic.
Examples
He must be barking mad to go out in this storm.
The constant barking from the neighbor's dog kept us awake all night.
She ignored the barking dog and continued walking down the path.