incur

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incurren, also encurren,^[2] borrowed from Latin incurrō (“to run into or against, rush at”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} and partly borrowed from Old French encorir (“to run, flee; commit, incur”),^[8][2] the Anglo-Norman form being encurir.^[8][9] Barnhart takes the French verb, Middle French encourir, as the immediate source,^[9] while the OED derives the word from Latin and only compares the French.^[3] The Latin verb is formed from in- (“upon, into”) and currō (“to run”),^[3][10][8] from Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”).^[8][10] It is related to current, course and incursion.^[9][6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bring something unwelcome upon oneself: about 1400, in Wycliffe's writings according to Barnhart.^[9][8] The MED's earliest quotation is from Lydgate (before 1439), of incurring "the greuous peyne" of death,^[2] and the OED's first record is also Lydgate's, about 1460.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb was used of punishment and wrath, and after the mid-15th century also of becoming liable for payments and expenses.^[2][8] In the 16th and 17th centuries writers also tried out the literal Latin sense: to run, fall or come into something (1536–1676), to come upon or meet with (1599–1680), and to occur or meet the eye (1626–92); all of these died out.^[3][12][4] So did the causative "to bring something on someone, entail" (1627–1784).^[3][4][5] The modern construction, to run or fall into a consequence through one's own action, is recorded from 1578, in Lyly's Euphues.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to become liable to a punishment or reprehension".^[13] Weekley notes that the literal sense survives in incursion.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to bring an undesirable consequence upon oneself.^[8][9]
• before 1439 – to make oneself liable to punishment; also to become liable for payments or expenses.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense of expenses to the mid-15th century.^[8]
• 1530 – to run into danger, render oneself liable to damage (obsolete by 1620).^[3]
• 1536 – intransitive, to run, fall or come into something (obsolete by 1676).^[3][12]
• 1578 – to run or fall into a usually harmful consequence through one's own action.^[3]
• 1599 – to come upon, meet with (obsolete by 1680).^[3][12]
• 1627 – to bring something on someone; to entail (obsolete by 1784).^[3][12]
• 1786 – intransitive, to devolve or accrue (until 1818).^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring something unpleasant upon oneself through one's own actions; to become liable or subject to: He incurred the anger of the whole committee by leaking the report.^[15][5][3]
2. To become liable for a cost, debt or obligation: the expenses incurred during the move.^[4][2][5]
3. To run into or encounter something.^[15]
4. (obsolete, 1599–1680) To run into; to come upon or meet with.^[3][4]
5. (obsolete, 1627–1784) To bring something on someone; to entail.^[3][4][5]

Word family

• incurrable
• reincur

Related words

• incurrence
• incursion
• incursive
• current
• course
• occur
• recur
• concur

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins