earn
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English ernen, from Old English earnian, from Proto-West Germanic *aʀanōn, from Proto-Germanic *azanōną. This verb is denominal from the noun *azaniz (“harvest”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ûrn, IPA(key): /ɜːn/
- (US) enPR: ûrn, IPA(key): /ɝn/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
- Homophones: ern, erne, urn
Verb
earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned or (chiefly UK) earnt)
- (transitive) To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- You can have the s'mores: you earned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
- Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
- 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, in BBC Sport:
- England will not be catapulted among the favourites for Euro 2012 as a result of this win, but no victory against Spain is earned easily and it is right they take great heart from their efforts as they now prepare to play Sweden at Wembley on Tuesday.
- (transitive) To receive payment for work.
- He earns seven million dollars a year as CEO. My bank account is only earning one percent interest.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (intransitive) To receive payment for work.
- Now that you are earning, you can start paying me rent.
- (transitive) To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.
- My CD earns me six percent!
- 1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 99:
- '[T]hough I earned her a lot of money, I have nothing but regrets for what I did.'
- (transitive) To achieve by being worthy of.
- to earn a spot in the top 20
Conjugation
infinitive | (to) earn | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | earn | earned | |
2nd-person singular | earn, earnest† | earned, earnedst† | |
3rd-person singular | earns, earneth† | earned | |
plural | earn | ||
subjunctive | earn | earned | |
imperative | earn | — | |
participles | earning | earned, earnt |
†Archaic or obsolete.
Synonyms
- (gain through applied effort or work): deserve, merit, garner, win
- ((transitive) receive payment for work):
- ((intransitive) receive payment for work):
- (cause someone to receive payment or reward): yield, make, generate, render
Derived terms
- earn a living
- earner
- earnings
- earn one's corn
- earn one's crust
- earn one's keep
- earn one's spurs
- earn one's stripes
- earn one's wings
- earn out
- earnout
- outourn
- overearn
- pay as you earn
- re-earn
- underearn
- unearned
Translations
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Etymology 2
Probably either:[1]
- from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnen (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”),[2] both from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
- a back-formation from earning (“(Britain regional, archaic) rennet”).
Verb
earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned) (Britain, dialectal)
- (transitive, archaic) To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
- Synonyms: run, (Northern England, Scotland) yearn
- (intransitive, obsolete) Of milk: to curdle, espcially in the cheesemaking process.
Etymology 3
A variant of yearn.[3]
Verb
earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned)
- (transitive, obsolete) To strongly long or yearn (for something or to do something).[4]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 3:
- And ever as he rode, his hart did earne / To prove his puissance in battell brave.
-
- (intransitive, obsolete) To grieve.[5]
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii], page 75, column 2:
- [M]y manly heart doth erne. […] Boy, briſsle thy Courage vp: For Falſtaffe hee is dead, and wee muſt erne therefore.
-
Noun
earn (plural earns)
- Alternative form of erne[6]
- 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], OCLC 1001655651:
- They gleamed on many a dusky tarn ,
Haunted by the lonely earn
-
References
- “earn, v.3”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
- “rennen, v.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “† earn, v.2”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
- earn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- earn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- earn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Anagrams
- Arne, Near, Nera, eRNA, erna, nare, near, rean
Middle English
Noun
earn
- (Early Middle English) Alternative form of ern (“eagle”)
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érō (“eagle, large bird”).
Cognate with Old Frisian *ern, Old Saxon *arn, Old Dutch *arn, Old High German arn, Old Norse ǫrn, Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌰 (ara); and, outside the Germanic languages, with Ancient Greek ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”), Old Armenian որոր (oror, “gull”), Old Irish irar, Lithuanian erẽlis, Old Church Slavonic орьлъ (orĭlŭ).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /æ͜ɑrn/, [æ͜ɑrˠn]
Noun
earn m
- eagle
Declension
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
nominative | earn | earnas |
accusative | earn | earnas |
genitive | earnes | earna |
dative | earne | earnum |
Descendants
- Middle English: ern
- English: erne
- Scots: earn, ern, erne
West Frisian
Etymology
From Old Frisian *ern, from Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érō.
Noun
earn c (plural earnen, diminutive earntsje)
- eagle
- (figuratively) miser
Further reading
- “earn”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011