Etymologically
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cost

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /kɒst/, US /kɑːst/[1]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English cost, borrowed from Old French cost (“cost, outlay; hardship”) (also coust, modern coût),[2][3][4] from the verb coster (“to cost”),[3][5][6] which comes from Latin cōnstāre (“to stand together, stand firm, be fixed; to stand at a price”),[3][2][7] through a Romance form *costāre.[8][4] Latin cōnstāre is formed from con- (“together”) and stāre (“to stand”),[3][2] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, be firm”).[2] Etymonline compares the modern idiom of a thing that “stands at” a price.[2] The English verb is inherited from Middle English costen, from Old French coster.[3][5] Barnhart notes that the word spread through the Romance languages (Spanish costar, Italian costare) and was widely borrowed into Germanic, Slavic and Celtic.[3][6] It is related to constant, stand and state.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Price, value: about 1200,[2][3] or before 1300 according to the OED, for what must be given to obtain something.[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “outlay of money, expenditure” is from about 1300[2] or 1386.[9] Expenses of litigation have been costs since 1340,[9][10] and expenditure of time or labour, or what is lost in gaining something, is from about 1300.[9] At one's cost is from 1297.[9] The verb meant “to buy” in Cursor Mundi,[3] and “to involve great expenditure” about 1378, in a version of Piers Plowman;[3] “to be the price of” is from the late 14th century.[2][9] “To cause to lose or suffer”, with a personal object, is from 1377.[9] Cost the earth and cost money are from 1667.[9] The original price of a thing (at cost) is from 1873,[9] and cost of living from 1896.[9] The verb “to estimate the cost of”, with the past tense costed, is a later development.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – price, value.[2][3]
  • 1297 – at one's cost.[9]
  • c. 1300 – expenditure of time or labour.[9]
  • 1340 – legal costs.[9]
  • 1377 – verb, to cause to lose.[9]
  • c. 1378 – verb, to involve great expense (Piers Plowman).[3]
  • 1667 – cost the earth.[9]
  • 1873 – at cost.[9]
  • 1896 – cost of living.[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An amount paid or required for something; a price.
  2. The time, effort or loss needed to achieve something.
  3. (costs) (law) The expenses of a lawsuit, often paid by the losing party.

Verb

  1. To have as a price.
  2. To cause to lose or suffer: it cost him his job.
  3. To estimate the cost of; past tense costed.

Word family

  • costless
  • costlessness
  • costlessly
  • cost-benefit
  • cost-effective
  • cost-efficient
  • costly
  • cost-push

Usage notes

Two rare words share the spelling: cost, the herb costmary, from Latin costum and Greek kóstos,[4][9] and cost in heraldry, a narrow band, from Old French coste, “rib”.[4][9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)