lessoning

Plurallessonings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of lesson.

   Note

   Two jobs share this spelling. In a progressive it is the participle (she was lessoning her pupils in French), and as a gerund it names the activity while still taking an object (lessoning children takes patience). Once it takes a plural or an adjective, as in "life's truest lessonings," it has become the noun for instruction. The verb behind it means to teach, and one of its senses is marked archaic.

2. 2
   nounarchaic

   Instruction or teaching given to a learner.

   His early lessoning at home prepared him well for university.

   And then I learned / Unto mine own tamed heart a higher trust, / And mightier strength to bear, so to give thee / Life's truest lessonings.

   1868, Eliza Cruger, Regina: And Other Poems

   Note

   Teaching under this name now belongs to older and poetic writing. Eliza Cruger's Regina: And Other Poems (1868) uses the plural for what experience teaches: "Life's truest lessonings." In present-day prose, instruction or tuition does the plain work. Choose lessoning only when you want a deliberately old-fashioned or literary ring, such as a period narrator recalling a boy's lessoning in Latin.

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