Etymograph

English

hire

Hire comes from Middle English hire, from Old English hȳr ‘pay for service’, from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūzijaną1reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūʀijan1reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūʀiju1‘payment’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hȳr1‘pay for service’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hire1‘wages’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590hire1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English hire
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VIII: “I vvill him reaue of armes, the victors hire,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūzijanąWiktionary, English hirereconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūʀijanWiktionary, English hirereconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūʀijuWiktionary, English hire‘payment’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hȳrWiktionary, English hire‘pay for service’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hireWiktionary, English hire‘wages’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590hireWiktionary, English hire. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VIII: “I vvill him reaue of armes, the victors hire,…”

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Another origin of hire

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kuHs-yé-tiuncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hūzijanąreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hūʀijan‘to hire’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hȳrian‘to hire’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hiren‘to hire’
  6. Englishtodayhire

Eclipsed Middle English souden (‘to hire, employ, enlist’), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (‘to take into employ, pay’); see English sold (‘salary, military pay’).

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Today it means

noun A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hire”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną / hire