cost

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The amount of money needed to buy or do something.

   The cost of the repairs was higher than we expected.

2. 2
   verb

   To have a particular price.

   These shoes cost a hundred dollars.

3. 3
   verb

   To make someone lose or sacrifice something.

   That one mistake cost me my job.

4. 4
   noun

   Something you must give up or suffer to get something else.

   They won the war, but the cost in human life was enormous.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Cost entered English in the Middle English period from Old French couster. That verb was based on Latin constare, meaning “stand firm” or “stand at a price.”

From Middle English cost, from Old English cost (“option, choice, possibility, manner, way, condition”), from Old Norse kostr (“choice, opportunity, chance, condition, state, quality”), from Proto-Germanic *kustuz (“choice, trial”) (or Proto-Germanic *kustiz (“choice, trial”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“to enjoy, taste”). Cognate with Icelandic kostur, German dialectal Kust (“taste, flavour”), Dutch kust (“choice, choosing”), North Frisian kest (“choice, estimation, virtue”), West Frisian kêst (“article of law, statute”), Old English cyst (“free-will, choice, election, the best of an…

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