Etymologically
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hire

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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)