What does agoing mean?
"Agoing" is an archaic English word meaning in motion, in the act of going, or in progress. It belongs to a once-common family of expressions formed with the prefix a-, such as "arunning" and "ariding," which survive today mainly in fixed phrases like "afire" and "afoot." Writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used "agoing" freely — Dickens and other novelists put it in the mouths of coachmen, sailors, and country folk — and it lingers in some regional dialects of Britain and America. In modern usage it sounds distinctly old-fashioned, which makes it useful for historical fiction, folk song, or deliberate stylistic color rather than everyday prose. Encountering "agoing" in older texts is a reminder that English grammar was once more flexible about how verbs could be turned into adverbial phrases, and that many seemingly odd constructions were once perfectly ordinary speech.
adverb (archaic present-participial form)"Agoing" is an archaic or dialectal form of "going," formed with the old prefix a-, used to mean in motion, in the act of going, or in progress. It survives chiefly in older literature, folk speech, and regional dialects of Britain and America.
- In motion; in the act of going (archaic/dialectal).
- In progress or underway; currently happening (archaic/dialectal).
"The old ferry was still agoing across the river when we reached the bank."
"By the time we arrived, the coach was already agoing down the London road."
"The millwheel kept agoing day and night, as it had for a hundred years."
That little 'a-' before words like 'agoing' is a fossil of Old English 'on' — so when someone said a ship was 'agoing,' they were literally saying it was 'on going.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of agoing
"Agoing" derives from the Middle English prefix a-, itself a reduced form of the Old English preposition on (or its variant an), which was prefixed to verbal nouns and participles to express being in a state or process. The construction "on going" gradually fused into "agoing," paralleling forms like "arunning" and "asleep." The pattern flourished through the early modern period and remains fossilized in survivals such as "abed," "afire," and "afoot." Cognate constructions appear in other Germanic-influenced contexts, but the a- prefix form is characteristically English.
How agoing is actually used
"Agoing" belongs to a family of forms built on the Middle English prefix a- (from Old English on/an), which also produced "arunning," "ariding," and similar coinages. It appears most often in 18th- and 19th-century literature, folk songs, and dialect writing, and today reads as quaint or deliberately archaic. It should not be used in modern formal prose except for stylistic effect.
Easily confused with agoing
"Ago" is a common adverb meaning a time in the past (e.g., 'three years ago'), while "agoing" is an archaic participial form meaning in motion or in progress.