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-1‘to bear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰéreti1‘to be carrying’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ferō1‘to carry’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEferō1‘to bear’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEofferō2‘to bring before or bring to’
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150offrian3‘offer or make a sacrifice’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500offer3
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1897offer3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin offero
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English offrian
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English offer
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “One morning I had been driven to the precarious…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰer-Wiktionary, Latin offero‘to bear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰéretiWiktionary, Latin offero‘to be carrying’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ferōWiktionary, Latin offero‘to carry’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEferōWiktionary, Latin offero‘to bear’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEofferōWiktionary, Old English offrian‘to bring before or bring to’
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150offrianWiktionary, English offer‘offer or make a sacrifice’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500offerWiktionary, English offer
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1897offerWiktionary, English offer. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “One morning I had been driven to the precarious…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with offer, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

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

  • bar ← barre ← barre ← *barra ← *barros
  • birth ← birthe ← burðr ← *burþiz ← *bʰértis
  • broad ← brood ← brād ← *braid ← *braidaz
  • bread ← brede ← brǣdu ← *braidį̄ ← *braidaz
  • fortune ← fortuna ← *fortūnā ← *bʰr̥-tew-n-éh₂
  • burden ← birthene ← byrden ← *burþini ← *burþī
  • bearing ← beringe ← berende ← *berandz ← *beraną
  • barrel ← barel ← baril ← barre ← *barra
  • prefer ← preferren ← preferer ← praeferō ← *praiferō
  • barn ← bearn ← *barną ← *bʰor-no-m
  • bore ← bára ← *bērō
  • fury ← fur ← *fōr ← *bʰṓr

427 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of offer

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰer-‘to bear, carry’root named by Wiktionary · 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’).

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Today it means

noun A proposal that has been made.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “offer”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin offero, Old English offrian. 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-Indo-European *bʰer- / offer