cost

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See also: Cost

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English cost, coust, from costen (“to cost”), see below.

Noun[edit]

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cost (plural costs)

  1. Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
    • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
      According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
    The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.
    We have to cut costs if we want to avoid bankruptcy.
    The average cost of a new house is twice as much as it was 20 years ago.
  2. A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
    There were many costs to the development project, the least of all was the financial aspect.
    If you train all the time, there will be a few costs such as a lack of free time.
Hyponyms[edit]
Hyponyms of cost
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from cost
Related terms[edit]
Related terms
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster (“to cost”), from Medieval Latin costare, from Latin constare (“stand together, stand at, cost”), from com- + stare (“stand”).

Verb[edit]

cost (third-person singular simple present costs, present participle costing, simple past and past participle cost or costed) See Usage notes.

  1. To incur a charge; to require payment of a price.
    This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.
    It will cost you a lot of money to take a trip around the world.
    • 1915, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger, chapter I:
      Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].
  2. To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
    Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.
  3. To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
    • John Milton (1608-1674)
      to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
    • Star Wars (1977)
      LUKE: "That little droid is going to cost me a lot of trouble."
  4. To calculate or estimate a price.
    I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.
Usage notes[edit]

The past tense and past participle is cost in the sense of "this computer cost me £600", but costed in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was costed at $1 million."

Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

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 anything, the choicest, picked host, moral excellence, virtue, goodness, generosity, munificence”), Latin gustus (“taste”). Related to choose.

Noun[edit]

cost (plural costs)

  1. (obsolete) Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
    • Pecock
      This word "graved image" betokenneth, needs cost,.. a feigned graved image.
  2. Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

From Old French coste from Latin costa.

Noun[edit]

cost (plural costs)

  1. (obsolete) A rib; a side.
    • Ben Jonson
      betwixt the costs of a ship
  2. (heraldry) A cottise.

Statistics[edit]

Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: week · stone · tree · #781: cost · value · cast · speaking

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Noun[edit]

cost m (plural costs or costos)

  1. cost

Related terms[edit]

Manx[edit]

Noun[edit]

cost m (genitive singular cost, plural costyn)

  1. charge (monetary)

Derived terms[edit]

Old English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *kust-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵews- (“to choose”). Akin to Old Saxon kostōn (“to try, tempt”), Old High German kostōn (“to taste, test, try by tasting”) (German kosten), Icelandic kosta (“to try, tempt”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 (kustus, “test”), Old English cystan (“to spend, get the value of, procure”), Old English cyst (“proof, test, trial; choice”), ċēosan (“to choose”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

cost m

  1. option, choice; possibility
  2. condition, manner, way
    þæs costes þe (on the condition that)

Declension[edit]

Declension of cost (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative cost costas
accusative cost costas
genitive costes costa
dative coste costum

Adjective[edit]

cost

  1. chosen, choice
  2. tried, proven; excellent

Declension[edit]

Declension of cost — Strong
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative cost cost cost
Accusative costne coste cost
Genitive costes costre costes
Dative costum costre costum
Instrumental coste costre coste
Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative coste costa, -e cost
Accusative coste costa, -e cost
Genitive costra costra costra
Dative costum costum costum
Instrumental costum costum costum
Declension of cost — Weak
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative costa coste coste
Accusative costan costan coste
Genitive costan costan costan
Dative costan costan costan
Instrumental costan costan costan
Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative costan costan costan
Accusative costan costan costan
Genitive costra, costena costra, costena costra, costena
Dative costum costum costum
Instrumental costum costum costum

Old French[edit]

Noun[edit]

cost m (oblique plural coz or cotz, nominative singular coz or cotz, nominative plural cost)

  1. cost; financial outlay

Related terms[edit]

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from English cost.

Noun[edit]

cost m, f (plural costau)

  1. cost
  2. expense

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
cost gost nghost chost
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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