cost

Meanings

Verb

• To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price.
• To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
• To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
• To calculate or estimate a price.

Noun

• Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
• A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
• Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
• Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
• A rib; a side.
• A cottise.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• appraisal cost
• carbon cost
• flotation cost
• landed cost
• marginal cost
• opportunity cost
• private cost
• sunk cost
• unexpired cost
• unit cost
• variable cost

Origin

• From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster, from Medieval Latin cōstō, from Latin cōnstō ("stand together").
• From Middle English cost, coust, from costen, from the same source as above.
• 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, 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. gusto.
• From Middle English, from Old French coste, from Latin costa. coast, and cuesta.