And, does the gerund -ing ending have the same origin as the present progressive -ing ending?
Maybe, maybe not. In Old English, the present participle and the so-called gerund were both formed by adding -Vnde to the verb. In the late Old English period, these started changing to -ing. There was an ending -ung, -ing, that formed verbal nouns, cf. Gyrstandæg ic wæs on huntunge ("heri fui in venatione" / "yesterday, I was a-hunting"). Because there might have been two different forms in Old english is no excuse for there to be two different (but identical) forms in Present-Day English. This is like saying that English inflects for case, but that the nominative, dative, and accusative cases have the same forms. (It seems related to the etymological fallacy.)
But hey, if you want both a gerund and a present participle in English, more power to you. Why not let's have a supine, too? In fact, there might be more of an argument for the supine: cf. the infinitive in English, e.g., love, with the supine to love.
OP
