Crossword Genius

Saying nothing, afflicted with longing? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

opining

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'saying' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being present participle verbs.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'nothing afflicted with longing?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'nothing' could be 'o' (looks like zero - 0) and 'o' is found in the answer.
'longing?' could be 'pining' ('pine' can be a synonym of 'long') and 'pining' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for opining that I've seen before include "Thinking" , "Expressing one's view" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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