Cost
Pronunciation
- RP IPA: /kÉ’st/
- US IPA: /kɔst/, /kɑst/
- Rhymes: -É’st
Origin 1
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"). Related to choose.
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Middle English cost, coust, from costen ("to cost"), see below.
Noun
cost
(plural costs)- Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
- 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures 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 t was 20 years ago.
- 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.
Derived terms
Origin 3
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
See Usage notes.- 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.
- 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.
- Shakespearethough it cost me ten nights' watchings
- (obsolete) To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
- Miltonto do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
- To calculate or estimate a price.I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.
Usage notes
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."