offering

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English offring,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English offrung,^[2][3][4][5] the verbal noun of offrian (“to offer, sacrifice”) with the suffix -ung.^[4][3] The OED treats it as formed within English from offer and -ing, and compares Old Dutch offringa, Middle Low German offeringe, Old High German offrunga and German Opferung.^[6] The Old English verb was an early Germanic borrowing of Latin offerō (“to present, bestow”),^[7][8] which in Late Latin meant to present in worship,^[2][8] and is formed from ob- and ferō (“to bring, carry”).^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The presenting of something to God or a god in worship, a sacrifice, and also the thing so presented: Old English, in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies and the Antwerp Glossary.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word belonged to worship and sacrifice.^[2][5] From about 1330 an offering could be any gift or token of esteem,^[6] and Etymonline dates offerings made to a person from the mid-15th century.^[2] The sense "tender for acceptance or sale" is recorded from 1483,^[6] and something offered to the public, such as a book or a performance, from 1820.^[6] In Chaucer the word is used of going up to the altar to give alms and of the offering at mass.^[9][10] Johnson (1755) defined it only as a sacrifice, or anything offered in worship.^[11]

Timeline

• Old English – a presenting to God in worship; a sacrifice or thing offered.^[6][5]
• c. 1330 – a gift, a present.^[6]
• 1483 – an offer for acceptance or sale.^[6]
• 1820 – something offered to the public, such as a book or show.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something offered; a gift or contribution.^[12][4]
2. Money given to a church, especially at a service.^[12][13]
3. Something offered to God or a god as an act of worship, such as an animal or fruits; a sacrifice or oblation.^[12][4][6]
4. The act of offering something.^[4][6]
5. Something made available to the public, such as a book, a film or a product: the studio's latest offering.^[6]

Word family

• burnt offering
• peace offering
• public offering

Related words

• offer
• offertory
• oblate
• oblation
• proffer

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press