Is It True That ‘Trending’ Means ‘The Turning’? The Real Origin of Trending

The Claim

Across viral listicles, language‑lover blogs, and even some “fun fact” videos, you’ll often hear the claim that the word trending literally means “the turning.” The story is usually phrased like this: “When something is trending, it’s literally ‘the turning’ – a throw‑back to an old English phrase that described a shift in direction.” The claim gained traction in the mid‑2010s, especially when users tried to give a clever historical spin to the newest Twitter hashtag. A popular TikTok caption even read, “Trending = the turning, just like the wheel turns!” This neat‑sound‑bite makes the myth feel plausible, especially because the root “trend” does sound like “turn.”

Why It’s Wrong

1. **Historical records show a different path.** The Oxford English Dictionary cites the verb *trend* from the early 1500s, derived from Old Norse *trenda* ‘to turn, to run.’ The noun *trend* appears in English by the 1580s meaning “a course or tendency.” The participle *trending* does not appear in print until the early 2000s, when internet slang adopted it to describe topics gaining rapid attention.
2. **The phrase “the turning” never existed as a lexical unit.** No OED, Merriam‑Webster, or academic source records a Middle‑English expression *the turning* that later collapsed into *trending*. The myth conflates the literal meaning of *trenda* with a modern back‑formation that never occurred.
3. **Scholarly consensus dismisses the back‑formation.** Experts such as Michael Quinion and the editors of the OED agree that *trend* evolved from a Scandinavian verb meaning “to turn,” but the modern sense of “popular now” is a semantic shift, not a literal translation of “the turning.” The claim is therefore a classic folk etymology, invented after the word was already in widespread use.

The Real Etymology

The story actually begins in the Viking Age. Old Norse *trenda* meant “to turn, to revolve,” a verb used of both physical motion and metaphorical change. When Norse traders and settlers interacted with the British Isles, the term entered the northern Middle English dialects, recorded as *trend* by the early 16th century. Initially it described a physical line or course – for example, the “trend of a river.” By the late 1500s the word broadened to denote a tendency or prevailing direction in fashion, politics, or opinion. This semantic extension mirrors how many motion‑related words become abstract (e.g., “flow” for ideas).
In the digital age, the participial adjective *trending* emerged to label topics that were “turning” in the sense of gaining momentum. It first appeared in online forums around 2005 and was popularized by Twitter’s “trending topics” feature in 2009. The modern usage is therefore a continuation of the older metaphor of “turning” but not a literal translation of an old phrase.

Why Myths Like This Spread

Folk etymologies thrive because they offer tidy, story‑like explanations for words that feel opaque. “Trending = the turning” sounds clever, linking a high‑tech buzzword to an ancient linguistic root, which satisfies a desire for historical depth. Social media accelerates this process: a catchy back‑formation can be shared thousands of times in a single post, gaining a veneer of authority through repetition. Moreover, the myth aligns with a broader cultural narrative that modern slang is secretly rooted in medieval wisdom, giving users a sense of intellectual superiority. Finally, the lack of a simple, memorable true story—Old Norse trade routes and subtle semantic drift—makes the neat back‑formation more appealing. Such myths reveal our collective yearning for concise, meaningful origins, even when the real history is messier.