gain | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

104 entries found.

c. 1200, gein, "advantage, benefit; help," c. 1300, "reward, profit, that which has been acquired" (possessions, resources, wealth), from Old French gain, gaaigne "gain, profit, advantage; work, business; booty; arable land" (12c.), from Germanic, and from Old Norse (see gain (v.)). Meaning "any incremental increase" (in weight, etc.) is by 1851. Related: Gains. The French word enfolded the notions of "profit from agriculture" and "booty, prey."

gain (v.)

1520s, "obtain as profit," from French gagner, from Old French gaaignier "to earn, gain; trade; capture, win," also "work in the fields, cultivate land," from Frankish *waidanjan "hunt, forage," also "graze, pasture," from Proto-Germanic *waithanjan "to hunt, plunder," from *waithjo- "pursuit, hunting" (source also of Old English waþ "hunting," German Weide "pasture, pasturage," Old Norse veiðr "hunting, fishing, catch of fish").

This is from PIE root *weie- "to go after, strive after, pursue vigorously, desire," with noun derivatives indicating "force, power" (related to *wi-ro- "man;" see virile). Cognates include Sanskrit padavi- "track, path, trail," veti- "follows, strives, leads, drives;" Avestan vateiti "follows, hunts;" Greek hiemai "move oneself forward, strive, desire;" Lithuanian vyti "to chase, pursue;" Old Norse veiðr "chase, hunting, fishing;" Old English OE wað "a chase, hunt."

Meaning "obtain by effort or striving" is from 1540s; intransitive sense of "profit, make gain" is from 1570s. Meaning "arrive at" is from c. 1600. Of timepieces by 1861. Related: Gained; gaining. To gain on "advance nearer" is from 1719. To gain ground (1620s) was originally military.

gainer (n.)

"one who gains or profits," 1530s, agent noun from gain (v.). As "one who (deliberately) gains weight" by 2000s.

gainly (adj.)

"well-formed and agile," 1886, probably a back-formation from ungainly. Earlier "ready, prompt" (1620s), from gain (n.).

gainful (adj.)

"producing profit or advantage," 1550s, from gain (n.) + -ful. Phrase gainfully employed attested from 1796. Related: Gainfully (1540s).

regain (v.)

1540s, "gain again, recover," as what has escaped or been lost, from French regaigner (Modern French regagner), from re- "again" (see re-) + gaginer, from Old French gaaignier "to earn, gain; trade; capture, win" (see gain (v.)). Meaning "arrive at again, return to" is from 1630s. Related: Regained; regaining.

violation (n.)

c. 1400, from Old French violacion and directly from Latin violationem (nominative violatio) "an injury, irreverence, profanation," from past participle stem of violare "to treat with violence, outrage, dishonor," perhaps an irregular derivative of vis "strength, force, power, energy," from PIE root *weie- "to go after, pursue with vigor or desire" (see gain (v.)).

vim (n.)

1843, usually said to be from Latin vim, accusative of vis "strength, force, power, vigor, energy," from Proto-Italic *wis-, traditionally from PIE root *weie- "to go after, pursue with vigor or desire," with noun derivatives indicating "force, power" (see gain (v.)) and related to the root of virile. But de Vaan seems to have doubts ("more easily explained from an original root noun"), and based on the early uses OED suggests the possibility that the English word is of "a purely inventive or interjectional origin."

invitation (n.)

mid-15c., "act of inviting, solicitation," from Latin invitationem (nominative invitatio) "an invitation, incitement, challenge," noun of action from past participle stem of invitare "invite, treat, entertain," originally "be pleasant toward," from in- "toward" (from PIE root *en "in").

The second element is obscure. Watkins suggests a suffixed form of the PIE root *weie- "to go after something, pursue with vigor" (see gain (v.)); de Vaan also traces it to a PIE form meaning "pursued." Meaning "the spoken or written form in which a person is invited" is from 1610s.

gainsay (v.)

"contradict, deny, dispute," c. 1300, literally "say against," from gain- (Old English gegn- "against;" see again) + say (v.). In Middle English it translates Latin contradicere. "Solitary survival of a once common prefix" [Weekley]. It also figured in such now-obsolete compounds as gain-taking "taking back again," gainclap "a counterstroke," gainbuy "redeem," Gaincoming "Second Advent," and gainstand "to oppose." Related: Gainsaid; gainsaying.

Trending words