gain

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To get or obtain something useful or valuable.

   Looks like you've gained a new friend.

2. 2
   verb

   To gradually increase in amount or level.

   The peace movement gained momentum.

3. 3
   verb

   To get more body weight.

   They gained twenty pounds when they stopped exercising.

4. 4
   verb

   To rise in value or price.

   The stock market gained 24 points today.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Gain came into late Middle English from French gaignier, “to gain,” and initially referred to booty. The French word was ultimately Germanic. The phrase gain ground began as an early 17th-century military expression for taking land from an enemy.

From Middle English gayn, gain, gein (“profit, advantage”), from Old Norse gagn (“benefit, advantage, use”), from Proto-Germanic *gagną, *gaganą (“gain, profit", literally "return”), from Proto-Germanic *gagana (“back, against, in return”), a reduplication of Proto-Germanic *ga- (“with, together”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with, along”). Cognate with Icelandic gagn (“gain, advantage, use”), Swedish gagn (“benefit, profit”), Danish gavn (“gain, profit, success”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌴𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (gageigan, “to gain, profit”), Old Norse gegn (“ready”), dialectal Swedish gen (“useful, noteful”…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary