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Etymology and origin of the Old French word cost

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1121–1125 More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Latin cōnstō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old French cost
English cost
From the same root
English costly ← cost

Forms

cost m (oblique plural coz, cotz; nominative singular coz, cotz)[1]

The FEW gives the noun as Old and Middle French coust from the 12th to the 16th century, and an Old Norman cust.[3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Old French coster (“to cost”).[4][3] The verb continues Latin cōnstō (“to stand firm; to cost”),[1][5][6] a compound of com- and stō (“to stand”),[7] of which only the sense “to be had for a price, to cost” passed into French.[6] The Romance languages formed nouns of their own from the verb: Italian costo and Spanish costo beside the feminine Spanish costa and Portuguese custa.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Anglo-Norman: the AND cites the noun from 1121–1125 for an outlay or expenditure.[2] Greimas dates it to Wace, 1155, meaning “cost, expense, charges”.[9]

Semantic evolution

Beside the money spent the word meant the trouble or effort something costs, a sense the FEW records from the 13th to the 16th century.[2][3] Old Norman cust also meant upkeep and livelihood, about 1196, and later, in Picard, food, a shift from the outlay for hospitality to the meal itself.[3] The pair cous et frais “costs and charges” is recorded about 1330, and the modern form is French coût.[3]

Timeline

  • 1121–1125 – the earliest Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.[2]
  • 1155 – in Wace.[9]
  • 1187–1191 – cust in the Chanson d'Aspremont, composed in Normandy or England.[10]
  • c. 1196 – Old Norman cust “upkeep, livelihood”.[3]
  • 1205 – coust in Robert de Clari.[11]
  • c. 1330 – cous et frais “costs and charges”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. cost, outlay, expenditure.[2][9][1]
  2. the price or value of a thing.[9]
  3. trouble, effort that something costs.[2][3]
  4. (Norman) upkeep, livelihood; food.[3]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the noun cost and first cites it from 1121–1125, with the spellings coust, cout, cust and custe.[2] Its phrases include “at the expense of”, “without any cost” and “to go to expense”.[2] Middle English cost, “outlay of money, expense”, is from Old French,[12] and so is English cost.[7][3]

Descendants

  • coster

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the noun cost,[14] as does the AND,[2] the Complément of Godefroy coust,[2] and the DMF and the TLFi coût.[2] The spelling cost is also the plant costmary, a separate word from Latin costum.[15][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. cost
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1081
  4. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 296
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1080
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. coûter
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2170
  9. ^ a b c d Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. cost
  10. ^ Camps, Jean-Baptiste, et al., Geste: a lemmatised corpus of Old French chansons de geste, github (texts by DEAF siglum), p. Asprem
  11. ^ Martineau, France, et al., Corpus MCVF (Modéliser le changement: les voies du français), version 2.0, University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1205-clari-mcvf-p
  12. ^ a b 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)
  13. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. coût
  14. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:929
  15. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. cost
Cite this entry

“Cost.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/cost. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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