cost
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒst/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɔst/
- (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈkɑst/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɒst, -ɔːst
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster (“to cost”), from Medieval Latin cōstō, from Latin cōnstō (“stand together”).
Verb edit
cost (third-person singular simple present costs, present participle costing, simple past and past participle cost or costed)
- (transitive, ditransitive) To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) 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.
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
- 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; […].
- (transitive, ditransitive) 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.
- 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian[1]:
- the packaging of home-delivered products now accounts for 30% of the solid rubbish the US generates annually, and the cardboard alone costs 1bn trees.
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- though it cost me ten nights' watchings
- To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
- 1977, Star Wars:
- LUKE: "That little droid is going to cost me a lot of trouble."
- To calculate or estimate a price.
- I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.
- (transitive, colloquial) To cost (a person) a great deal of money or suffering.
- I can give you the names, but it'll cost you.
- That's going to cost you!
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
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Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English cost, coust, from costen (“to cost”), from the same source as above.
Noun edit
cost (countable and uncountable, plural costs)
- Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
- 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.
- 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.
- A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
- Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.
- The army won the battle decisively, but at a cost of many lives.
Hyponyms edit
- accounting cost
- actual cost
- after-cost
- appraisal cost
- at any cost
- at the cost of
- carbon cost
- closing cost
- come at a cost
- contingency cost
- cost-benefit analysis
- cost-book
- cost-conscious
- cost dear
- cost-effectiveness
- cost mark
- cost object
- cost of goods sold
- cost oil
- cost plus
- cost-push inflation
- direct cost
- dollar cost averaging
- dollar-cost averaging
- fixed cost
- flotation cost
- flyaway cost
- historical cost
- indirect cost
- landed cost
- low cost carrier
- marginal cost
- marginal cost of capital
- menu cost
- negative cost
- operating cost
- opportunity cost
- prime cost
- private cost
- should-cost
- sunk cost
- ultra low cost carrier
- unexpired cost
- unit cost
- variable cost
- weighted-average cost of capital
- wellhead cost
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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. Doublet of gusto.
Noun edit
cost (plural costs)
- (obsolete) Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.(Can we add an example for this sense?)
- Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Etymology 4 edit
From Middle English coste, from Old French coste, from Latin costa. Doublet of coast and cuesta.
Noun edit
cost (plural costs)
- (obsolete) A rib; a side.
- 1625 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Staple of Newes. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- betwixt the costs of a ship
- (heraldry) A cottise.
Anagrams edit
Catalan edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Noun edit
cost m (plural costs or costos)
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
cost m (uncountable)
Further reading edit
- “cost” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
- “cost”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
- “cost” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
Manx edit
Noun edit
cost m (genitive singular cost, plural costyn)
- 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
Declension edit
Adjective edit
cost
Declension edit
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, coste | cost |
Accusative | coste | costa, coste | cost |
Genitive | costra | costra | costra |
Dative | costum | costum | costum |
Instrumental | costum | costum | costum |
Old French edit
Etymology edit
From Latin constare, present infinitive of consto (“I stand firm (at a price)”).
Noun edit
cost oblique singular, m (oblique plural coz or cotz, nominative singular coz or cotz, nominative plural cost)
- cost; financial outlay
Related terms edit
Romanian edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Verb edit
cost
Etymology 2 edit
Back-formation from costa
Noun edit
cost n (uncountable)
Declension edit
Welsh edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
- (North Wales) IPA(key): /koːsd/, [kʰoːst]
- (South Wales) IPA(key): /kɔsd/, [kʰɔst]
- Rhymes: -ɔsd
Noun edit
cost m or f (plural costau)
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. |
Further reading edit
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “cost”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies