What does enthusing mean?
"Enthusing" is the present participle and gerund form of the verb "enthuse," meaning to express keen enjoyment, excitement, or approval about something, or to inspire such feelings in others. A person who is enthusing speaks warmly and energetically, often at length — she might spend an entire dinner enthusing about a novel she has just finished. The word carries an upbeat, positive connotation, though it can occasionally suggest excessive or gushing praise. Interestingly, "enthuse" itself has a rebellious history: it emerged in the nineteenth century as a so-called back-formation, coined by trimming "-asm" from "enthusiasm," and was long dismissed by usage critics as illegitimate. Despite that early disapproval, it has become thoroughly established in everyday English on both sides of the Atlantic. Related forms include "enthuse," "enthused," "enthusiasm," and "enthusiastic."
verbThe present participle and gerund of "enthuse": to express eager enjoyment, interest, or approval about something; to fill someone with enthusiasm.
- (intransitive) To talk or write with eager interest and approval about something.
- (transitive) To make someone enthusiastic; to inspire eagerness in a person.
"She spent the evening enthusing about her trip to Iceland."
"He couldn't stop enthusing about the new restaurant he'd discovered."
"Her coach was brilliant at enthusing the team before every match."
"Enthuse" is an impostor that won: it began as a despised back-formation from "enthusiasm," condemned by Victorian purists as vulgar — yet it's now fully standard English.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of enthusing
"Enthusing" derives from "enthuse," a verb formed in the first half of the nineteenth century by back-formation from "enthusiasm," simply removing the noun's ending. "Enthusiasm" traces further back through French and Latin to the Greek "enthousiasmos," from "entheos," meaning "possessed by a god" (from "en," "in," and "theos," "god") — originally describing divine inspiration or possession. The verb was criticized for decades as an uneducated coinage, but it gained full respectability over the twentieth century. Words sharing the same Greek root include "enthusiasm," "enthusiast," and "enthusiastic."
Related word forms
How enthusing is actually used
Register is informal-to-neutral; some conservative writers still prefer "be enthusiastic about," but "enthuse" is now widely accepted, especially in British English. The transitive sense takes a person as its object ("enthused the students"); the intransitive sense typically pairs with "about" or "over."
Easily confused with enthusing
"Infusing" means steeping or introducing one thing into another to change its character, while "enthusing" means expressing or inspiring enthusiasm.