means The act of supplying water to plants, animals, or soil to keep them alive and thriving.

from From Old English 'wæter,' the same root that runs through German 'Wasser' and Dutch 'water,' all descending from a Proto-Germanic source and, further back, the Proto-Indo-European root 'wed-' meaning 'water, wet' — a word so ancient and essential that its cousins surface everywhere from Greek 'hydor' to Russian 'voda' (the same 'voda' hiding inside 'vodka,' literally 'little water'). 'Watering,' the act, simply adds the verb-making to the noun: to put water to something.