hire

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /haɪə/, /ˈhaɪ.ə/, US /ˈhaɪ.ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English hire, inherited from Old English hȳr (“wages, payment for use”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *hūrju.^[4] The verb is Middle English hiren, from Old English hȳrian “to pay for service, employ for wages”, probably formed from the noun.^[3][5] Related words are Old Frisian hēre “lease, rent, wages”, Old Saxon hūria, Middle Dutch hūre (Dutch huur) and German Heuer “wages”.^[3][2] The further origin is uncertain.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, payment for the temporary use of a thing, and the verb, to engage a person's services for wages, are both first recorded about 1000.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Wages for personal service are recorded as a noun sense from before 1225, and the figurative sense “reward, recompense” at the same time.^[6] To get the use of a thing for payment is from about 1205, and to let out a thing on hire from 1382.^[6] The reflexive “to agree to work for wages” is from the mid-13th century,^[2] and the intransitive hire out, to take service, is from 1776 and chiefly North American.^[6] The noun sense “the action of hiring” is from 1615.^[6] Hireling was rare in Old English and was formed afresh in the 16th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – payment for use; to employ for wages.^[6]
• c. 1205 – to get the use of a thing for payment.^[6]
• 1382 – to let out on hire.^[6]
• 1615 – the action of hiring.^[6]
• 1776 – hire out, to take service.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To employ a person for wages.
2. To get the temporary use of something for payment; to rent.
3. (often with out) To let someone use something, or one's own services, for payment.

Noun

1. The act of hiring, or the state of being hired: cars for hire.
2. Payment for work or for the use of something.
3. (North America) A person who has recently been hired.

Word family

• hirable
• hirer
• hiree
• hireling
• dehire
• outhire
• rehire
• unhired

Usage notes

Hiring a thing, such as a car, for temporary use is mainly British; in American English one usually rents it.^[7][8] In Scotland and northern England dialect a hire was also a hiring fair, where farm servants were engaged.^[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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ 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)