outweigh

Etymology

It is formed from English out- + weigh, with the prefix in its sense of going beyond or exceeding.^[2][3][4][5] Weigh goes back to Old English wegan (“to weigh, carry, move”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To weigh more than something: 1534, in John Heywood's Play of Love.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates the word to 1534,^[4] while Etymonline and Dictionary.com, following the older OED dating, put it in the 1590s.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, to surpass something (especially a disadvantage) in importance, influence or value, followed within a generation, in Heywood's Works of 1562.^[2] The OED's first edition had found the literal sense only in 1597 and the figurative one in 1632; its revision of 2004 took both back to Heywood.^[6][2] Mapping Metaphor places the word in a wider pattern, current since the late 16th century, of describing importance and worth in terms of weight.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as to exceed in gravity, and to exceed in value or influence.^[8]

Timeline

• 1534 – to weigh more than something.^[2][4]
• 1562 – to be more important or valuable than something.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be more important, significant or valuable than something: For most buyers the savings outweighed the inconvenience.^[9][4][2]
2. To be heavier than something.^[9][4][2]
3. To prevail over; to overcome.^[9]

Related words

• weigh
• overweigh

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins