earnest

Pronunciation

• UK: /ˈɜː.nɪst/^[1]
• US: /ˈɝ.nɪst/^[1]

earnest¹ serious

Etymology

The adjective meaning serious is inherited from Middle English ernest,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English eornoste (“zealous, serious”),^[3][4][5] from the noun eornost (“seriousness, zeal, battle”),^[3][4][6][7] which survives in the phrase in earnest.^[3][8] The noun is from Proto-Germanic *ernustuz,^[9] cognate with Old Saxon ernust, Old Frisian ernst, Old High German ernust and German Ernst,^{[3][10][2][11]} and is probably a suffixed form of the base of Old Norse ern (“brisk, vigorous”) and Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌽𐌹𐌱𐌰 (arniba, “safely, surely”),^{[10][7][12][13]} whose further origin is uncertain.^[10][7] Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to move, set in motion, rise”),^[3][2] and Barnhart compares Ancient Greek ὄρνυμι (órnumi, “to set in motion”);^[2][14] Ayto describes the Germanic base as meaning vigour or briskness.^[15] The OED treats the English adjective as either formed from the noun or inherited from the same Germanic base.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, of a person, serious and sincere, in Cynewulf's Christ;^[10] as a noun, seriousness, in Wulfstan, and ardour in battle, in Ælfric.^[10] Ayto says the Old English noun first seems to have meant intense passion, especially zeal in battle.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Ayto calls the word much more "red-blooded" at first: by the end of the Old English period its meaning was already softening from intensity of feeling to seriousness, as opposed to frivolity,^[15] and the battle sense died out about 1430.^[10] The noun, seriousness, is now rare except in the phrase in earnest, recorded from Old English,^[10][12][8] and its intensified form in good earnest (1477, Caxton).^[10] The adjective was applied to words and actions from before 1456 (Lydgate),^[10] and to weighty matters from 1533.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined it first as ardent or zealous in any affection.^[16] Ayto sees the process ending in the modern overtone of excessive seriousness.^[15] The proper name Ernest comes from the same root.^[3][13]

Timeline

• Old English – adjective, serious, sincere (Cynewulf); noun, seriousness, also in the phrase in earnest.^[10]
• c. 1250 – the noun as ernest, in The Story of Genesis and Exodus.^[2]
• before 1325 – the adjective as ernest, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2]
• c. 1430 – last record of the sense “ardour in battle”.^[10]
• 1477 – in good earnest.^[10]
• 1533 – of matters, weighty, important.^[10]
• 1563 – adverb, earnestly (obsolete by 1791).^[10][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serious in mind or purpose, not frivolous: an earnest young teacher.^[17][4]
2. Showing sincerity and deep feeling: an earnest appeal for help.^[17][4][10]
3. Needing serious attention; weighty.^[17][10]

Noun

1. Seriousness of purpose; now mainly in the phrase in earnest: seriously, sincerely, or in reality.^[17][4][10]
2. (obsolete, Old English–1430) Ardour in battle; intense passion.^[10][7]

Adverb

1. (obsolete, 1563–1791) Earnestly.^[4][10]

Word family

• earnestly
• earnestness
• overearnest
• unearnest

earnest² pledge, earnest money

Etymology

The pledge is inherited from Middle English ernest, earlier ernes,^[3][4][2][7] probably borrowed from Old French erres (“pledges, earnest money”), the plural of erre (“pledge”),^{[2][4][13][17][12]} altered by association with words in -ness.^{[2][7][10][5]} Merriam-Webster gives the source as Anglo-Norman arres or erres.^[4] Hoad and the OED instead consider an alteration of the synonymous arles, in Middle English erles;^[7][10] the OED, which calls the origin uncertain, treats the 13th-century Anglo-Norman ernes and ernest as probably taken from English.^[10] The French word is from Latin arra, also arrha, short for arrabō,^{[2][13][18][17]} from Ancient Greek ἀρραβών (arrhabṓn, “earnest money, pledge”),^[13][2][18] which is generally taken to be of Semitic origin, compared with the Hebrew word for a pledge.^{[13][3][4][18]} The final t appeared before 1400, through confusion with earnest¹, as if a bargain were made "in earnest".^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Money paid as a first instalment to secure a bargain or contract: 1221,^[10] although the OED notes that this first record may be of the Anglo-Norman word.^[10] Etymonline and Barnhart date the form ernes to about 1200.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Already by about 1225, in Saint Juliana, the word was used figuratively for a pledge or foretaste of something to come,^[10][3] In Middle English it was sometimes spelled erness, which suggests that it was taken as er, early, with the suffix -ness.^[3] Weekley notes that the two words earnest were often punned on.^[8] A verb earnest, to secure with earnest money, was used from before 1425 to 1794.^[10] In 17th-century thieves' cant earnest was a share of the booty, as in tip me my earnest, "give me my share".^[19][10] In English dialects the word kept the sense of money that seals a bargain, especially the shilling given to a farm servant when hired for a year.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – ernes, a pledge.^[3][2]
• 1221 – money paid to secure a bargain.^[10]
• c. 1225 – figurative, a foretaste or pledge of what is to come.^[10]
• before 1400 – the spelling with t.^[2]
• before 1425 – verb, to secure with earnest money (obsolete by 1794).^[10]
• 1648 – cant: a share of the booty.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. Money or something of value given in advance to bind a bargain; earnest money.^[4][10][20]
2. A token or pledge of what is to come; a foretaste: The warm week was an earnest of summer.^[4][10][12]

Word family

• earnest money

Related words

• arles
• Ernest

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
19. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
20. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)