get

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English geten,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old Norse geta (“to obtain, reach; to be able to; to beget; to learn”),^{[6][2][7][8][9]} which the OED calls an early Scandinavian borrowing.^[10] Barnhart explains why it cannot be a native word: its relative Old English -gietan, found in begietan (beget), forgietan (forget) and undergietan, would have had the initial sound of yet in modern English,^[11] as in yeten.^[12] Collins nevertheless gives the Old English verb as the source.^[13] The Norse and Old English verbs go back to Proto-Germanic *getan,^[6][9][14] with the cognates Old High German gezzan, Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find, discover”) and Dutch vergeten and German vergessen.^[10][15][11] Most sources derive it from Proto-Indo-European *ghend- (“to seize, take”) or its unnasalized form,^{[6][4][5][7][9]} and compare Latin praeda (“booty”), prehendō (“to grasp, seize”), Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to hold, contain”) and Albanian gjej (“to find”).^{[10][15][4][8]} Barnhart reports that not all scholars accept that comparison, Ernout and Meillet among them.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To obtain property or wealth by effort or contrivance: about 1175, in the Ormulum.^[10][11] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to about 1200,^[6][11] and Dictionary.com to 1150–1200.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Norse verb was already of very broad meaning.^[6] Obtaining, in specific cases such as crops (before 1275), game (about 1300) and coal or ore (1457), led to the acquisition of intangible things (1476) and to catching an illness (1527).^[10][16] The reflexive sense of taking oneself somewhere appears in 1492.^[16] The sense "to become" is recorded from 1558,^[16][7] and the use with a past participle from 1594;^[16] Dictionary.com says that forms of get have made a passive with a past participle for nearly 400 years.^[12] Possession is recorded from 1611 and obligation from 1767.^[16] Etymonline remarks that in phrases with have and had the verb is grammatically redundant but often marks possession, obligation or emphasis, and that the word and its phrases fill 29 columns in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[6] The original past participle was getten, which lasted into the 16th century.^[9] The form gotten was a Middle English innovation modelled on spoken and stolen,^[9] and is now mainly American.^[7][8] The shortened got replaced the old past tense gat.^[9] The noun, formed from the verb, meant gain from about 1390 and offspring from before 1400;^[10] Etymonline has offspring in the early 14th century.^[6] Scots and northern English used it of a brat or bastard, and then of a contemptible person,^[8][17][18] and the Shorter Oxford cross-refers it to git.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to obtain by effort or contrivance.^[10]
• before 1275 – to bring in a crop.^[10]
• c. 1300 – to catch by hunting or fishing.^[10]
• c. 1390 – noun, gain, booty.^[10][6]
• before 1400 – noun, offspring.^[10]
• 1457 – to obtain coal or ore by mining.^[10]
• 1476 – to acquire a quality, power or custom.^[16]
• 1492 – reflexive, to betake oneself to a place.^[16]
• 1527 – to catch an illness.^[16]
• 1558 – to become.^[16]
• 1594 – with a past participle as complement.^[16]
• 1608 – to learn, ascertain.^[16]
• 1611 – to possess, own.^[16]
• 1767 – to be obliged to do something.^[16]
• 1897 – noun, in Australian and New Zealand slang, a getaway.^[10]
• 1911 – noun, in tennis, the return of a difficult ball.^[10]
• 1992 – noun, as in a big get, a valuable acquisition.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come into possession of; to receive or earn: She got a bicycle for her birthday.^[13][5][3]
2. To go after and bring; to fetch: Get me a blanket, please.^[13][5]
3. To catch an illness: He got a cold on the trip.^[13][5][16]
4. To capture or seize: The guards finally got the thief.^[13]
5. To become, or to cause to become: It is getting cold.^[13][16]
6. To succeed in going or coming; to arrive: We got home late.^[13][5]
7. With an infinitive, to manage or contrive: How did you get to be mayor?^[13]
8. To prepare a meal.^[13]
9. To hear, notice or understand: I didn't get the joke.^[13]
10. To catch a train or the like.^[13][5]
11. To persuade someone to do something.^[13][12]
12. To reach by calculation.^[13][16]
13. To communicate with someone, as by telephone.^[13][5]
14. Informally, to have an emotional effect on, or to annoy.^[13]
15. With a past participle, forming a passive: They got married in June.^[12][13]
16. To beget.^[7][12]
17. have got, to possess, and have got to, to be obliged to.^[16][6]

Noun

1. The offspring of an animal, especially of a stud male.^[3][10]
2. In tennis, the return of a difficult ball.^[10]
3. In Australian and New Zealand slang, a getaway.^[10][18]
4. Something gained; earnings (now regional).^[3][10]
5. In Scots and northern English, a brat or a contemptible person.^[8][17]

Word family

• getable
• gettable

Related words

• guess
• beget
• forget
• git
• prehensile
• prey
• apprehend
• comprehend
• surprise
• enterprise

Usage notes

A separate noun get, a Jewish bill of divorce or the divorce itself, recorded from 1843 in the OED and 1892 in Merriam-Webster, is a borrowing from post-biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, and goes back through Akkadian to Sumerian.^[10][5][3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d e f Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
15. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com