English Online Dictionary. What means earn? What does earn mean?
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English ernen, from Old English earnian, from Proto-West Germanic *aʀanōn, from Proto-Germanic *azanōną. This verb is denominal from the noun *azaniz (“harvest”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ûrn, IPA(key): /ɜːn/
- (US) enPR: ûrn, IPA(key): /ɝn/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
- Homophones: ern, erne, urn
Verb
earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned or (chiefly UK) earnt)
- (transitive) To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- (transitive) To receive payment for work.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (intransitive) To receive payment for work.
- (transitive) To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.
- (transitive) To achieve by being worthy of.
Conjugation
Synonyms
- (gain through applied effort or work): deserve, merit, garner, win
- ((transitive) receive payment for work):
- ((intransitive) receive payment for work):
- (cause someone to receive payment or reward): yield, make, generate, render
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
Probably either:
- from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnen (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
- a back-formation from earning (“(Britain regional, archaic) rennet”).
Verb
earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned) (Britain, dialectal)
- (transitive, archaic) To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
- Synonyms: run, (Northern England, Scotland) yearn
- (intransitive, obsolete) Of milk: to curdle, espcially in the cheesemaking process.
Etymology 3
A variant of yearn.
Verb
earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned)
- (transitive, obsolete) To strongly long or yearn (for something or to do something).
- (intransitive, obsolete) To grieve.
Etymology 4
Noun
earn (plural earns)
- Alternative form of erne
References
Anagrams
- Arne, Near, Nera, eRNA, erna, nare, near, rean
Middle English
Noun
earn
- (Early Middle English) Alternative form of ern (“eagle”)
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érō (“eagle, large bird”).
Cognate with Old Frisian *ern, Old Saxon *arn, Old Dutch *arn, Old High German arn, Old Norse ǫrn, Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌰 (ara); and, outside the Germanic languages, with Ancient Greek ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”), Old Armenian որոր (oror, “gull”), Old Irish irar, Lithuanian erẽlis, Old Church Slavonic орьлъ (orĭlŭ).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /æ͜ɑrn/, [æ͜ɑrˠn]
Noun
earn m
- eagle
Declension
Descendants
- Middle English: ern
- English: erne
- Scots: earn, ern, erne
West Frisian
Etymology
From Old Frisian *ern, from Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érō.
Noun
earn c (plural earnen, diminutive earntsje)
- eagle
- (figuratively) miser
Further reading
- “earn”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011