See also: Offer

English edit

 
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Alternative forms edit

  • offre (obsolete)
  • offa (pronunciation spelling)

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English offer, from Old English offrian (offer or make a sacrifice) rather than from Old French offre (offer), from offrir (to offer), from Latin offerō (to present, bring before). Compare North Frisian offer (sacrifice, donation, fee), Dutch offer (offering, sacrifice), German Opfer (victim, sacrifice), Danish offer (victim, sacrifice), Icelandic offr (offering). See verb below.

Noun edit

offer (plural offers)

  1. A proposal that has been made.
    What's in his offer?
    I decline your offer to contract.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
  2. Something put forth, bid, proffered or tendered.
    His offer was $3.50 per share.
  3. (law) An invitation to enter into a binding contract communicated to another party which contains terms sufficiently definite to create an enforceable contract if the other party accepts the invitation.
    His first letter was not a real offer, but an attempt to determine interest.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
  • Tokelauan: ofo
Translations edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English offren, offrien. In the religious senses inherited from Old English offrian (to offer, sacrifice, bring an oblation); otherwise from Old French ofrir. Both ultimately from Latin offerō (to present, bestow, bring before, literally to bring to), from Latin ob + ferō (bring, carry), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (to carry, bear), later reinforced by Old French offrir (to offer). Cognate with Old Frisian offria (to offer), Old Dutch offrōn (to offer), German opfern (to offer), Old Norse offra (to offer). More at ob-, bear.

Verb edit

offer (third-person singular simple present offers, present participle offering, simple past and past participle offered)

  1. (intransitive) To propose or express one's willingness (to do something).
    She offered to help with her homework.
  2. (transitive) To present in words; to proffer; to make a proposal of; to suggest.
    Everybody offered an opinion.
  3. (transitive) To place at someone’s disposal; to present (something) to be either accepted or turned down.
    He offered use of his car for the week.  He offered his good will for the Councilman's vote.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, []. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic []. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. [] But the scandals kept coming, []. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
  4. (transitive) To present (something) to God or gods as a gesture of worship, or for a sacrifice.
  5. (transitive, engineering) To place (something) in a position where it can be added to an existing mechanical assembly.
    • 2009, Roger Williams, Triumph Tr2, 3, 3a, 4 & 4a:
      The next stage is to remove and replace the top part of the right side lip, and offer the lid to the car to ensure all the shapes and gaps are okay.
  6. (transitive) To bid, as a price, reward, or wages.
    I offered twenty dollars for it. The company is offering a salary of £30,000 a year.
  7. (intransitive) To happen, to present itself.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. [], London: [] Jacob Tonson, [], →OCLC:
      The occasion offers, and the youth complies.
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: [] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] [], →OCLC, page 72:
      The opportunity however did not offer till next morning, for Phœbe did not come to bed till long after I was gone to ſleep:
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 7:
      Much was I disappointed upon learning that the little packet for Nantucket had already sailed, and that no way of reaching that place would offer, till the following Monday.
  8. (obsolete) To make an attempt; typically used with at.
  9. (transitive) To put in opposition to; to manifest in an offensive or defensive way; to threaten.
    to offer violence to somebody
    The peasants offered no resistance as they were rounded up.
Usage notes edit
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
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

off +‎ -er

Noun edit

offer (plural offers)

  1. (used in combinations from phrasal verbs) agent noun of off
    • 2003, James-Jason Gantt, Losing Summer[1], →ISBN, page 146:
      Once you finally discover yourself a dismember-er, a de-limber, a fucking head-cutter-offer, the most simple of tasks — enjoying a long walk outside, seeing a movie, conversing with a stranger in the library — all become prized and over-inflated moments of elation.
Derived terms edit

Anagrams edit

Danish edit

Noun edit

offer n (singular definite ofret or offeret, plural indefinite ofre)

  1. sacrifice
  2. victim

Inflection edit

Derived terms edit

Dutch edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle Dutch offere, from Old Dutch [Term?].

Noun edit

offer n (plural offers, diminutive offertje n)

  1. sacrifice
  2. victim
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
  • Negerhollands: offer
  • Papiamentu: offer (dated)

Etymology 2 edit

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb edit

offer

  1. inflection of offeren:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Latin edit

Verb edit

offer

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of offerō

Norwegian Bokmål edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse offr.

Noun edit

offer n (definite singular offeret, indefinite plural offer or ofre, definite plural ofra or ofrene)

  1. a sacrifice
  2. a victim, a casualty

Derived terms edit

References edit

Norwegian Nynorsk edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse offr.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

offer n (definite singular offeret, indefinite plural offer, definite plural offera)

  1. a sacrifice
  2. a victim, a casualty
    Offera var alle drepne på same måten.
    The victims were all killed in the same manner.

Derived terms edit

References edit

Swedish edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse offr.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

offer n

  1. sacrifice
  2. victim

Declension edit

Declension of offer 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative offer offret offer offren
Genitive offers offrets offers offrens

Derived terms edit

References edit

Anagrams edit

Welsh edit

Etymology edit

Apparently from Middle Welsh offer (an offer), from Middle English offer, from Old French offre, though the semantic development is unclear.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

offer f (plural offerau or offeriau or offrau)

  1. equipment

Derived terms edit

Mutation edit

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal h-prothesis
offer unchanged unchanged hoffer
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References edit

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “offer”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies