Etymograph

English

offer

Offer comes from Old English offrian ‘offer or make a sacrifice’, from Latin ferō ‘to bear, carry’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰer-‘to bear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰéreti‘to be carrying’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ferō‘to carry’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEferō‘to bear’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEofferō‘to bring before or bring to’
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150offrian‘offer or make a sacrifice’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500offer
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1897same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰer-‘to bear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰéreti‘to be carrying’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ferō‘to carry’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEferō‘to bear’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEofferō‘to bring before or bring to’
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150offrian‘offer or make a sacrifice’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500offer
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1897same form

Earliest quotation: 1897, Winston Churchill: “One morning I had been driven to the precarious…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‘to bear, carry’

bar, birth, broad, bread, fortune, burden, bearing, barrel, prefer, barn, bore, fury, baron, breeze, bark, broom, barrow, embargo, fret, berth, furtive, ferret, insufferable, bahar, bier, birr, barrette, bairn, burnish, 114 more

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti ‘to be carrying’

bear, borne, phosphate, phosphorus, euphoria, dysphoria, semaphore, phosphine, indifferently, 91 more

through Proto-Italic *ferō ‘to carry, bear’

suffering, differently, differentiation, indifferent, infertility, deference, infertile, differentially, deferential, differentiable, differentiator, 68 more

through Latin ferō ‘to bear, carry’

different, relative, difference, translation, extraordinary, relation, reference, transfer, relate, frustration, translate, strangely, suffer, referendum, extravagant, fertility, referee, differ, fertile, frustrate, elated, infra, extraneous, ablation, fertilization, elation, strangeness, confer, collation, defer, infer, dilate, collate, ablative, fertilize, estrange, efferent, 79 more

through Latin offerō ‘to bring before or bring to, present, offer,…’

oblate, 4 more

Another origin of offer

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰer-‘to bear, carry’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500offren
  3. Englishtodayoffer

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’).

Today it means

noun A proposal that has been made.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- / offer

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