different between gain vs earn

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English gayn, gain, gein (“profit, advantage”), from Old Norse gagn (“benefit, advantage, use”), from Proto-Germanic *gagn?, *gagan? (“gain, profit", literally "return”), from Proto-Germanic *gagana (“back, against, in return”), a reduplication of Proto-Germanic *ga- (“with, together”), from Proto-Indo-European *?óm (“next to, at, with, along”). Cognate with Icelandic gagn (“gain, advantage, use”), Swedish gagn (“benefit, profit”), Danish gavn (“gain, profit, success”), Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (gageigan, “to gain, profit”), Old Norse gegn (“ready”), dialectal Swedish gen (“useful, noteful”), Latin cum (“with”); see gain-, again, against. Compare also Middle English gaynen, geinen (“to be of use, profit, avail”), Icelandic and Swedish gagna (“to avail, help”), Danish gavne (“to benefit”).

The Middle English word was reinforced by Middle French gain (“gain, profit, advancement, cultivation”), from Old French gaaing, gaaigne, gaigne, a noun derivative of gaaignier (“to till, earn, win”), from Frankish *waidanjan (“to pasture, graze, hunt for food”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waiþiz, *waiþ?, *waiþij? (“pasture, field, hunting ground”); compare Old High German weid?n, weidan?n (“to hunt, forage for food”) (Modern German Weide (“pasture”)), Old Norse veiða (“to catch, hunt”), Old English w?þan (“to hunt, chase, pursue”). Related to wathe, wide.

Verb

gain (third-person singular simple present gains, present participle gaining, simple past and past participle gained)

1. (transitive) To acquire possession of.

   Looks like you've gained a new friend.
2. (intransitive) To have or receive advantage or profit; to acquire gain; to grow rich; to advance in interest, health, or happiness; to make progress.

   The sick man gains daily.
3. (transitive, dated) To come off winner or victor in; to be successful in; to obtain by competition.

   to gain a battle; to gain a case at law

4. (transitive) To increase.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.

5. (intransitive) To be more likely to catch or overtake an individual.

   I'm gaining (on you).

   gain ground

6. (transitive) To reach.

   to gain the top of a mountain

   • 1907, Jack London, The Iron Heel:

     Ernest laughed harshly and savagely when he had gained the street.

7. To draw into any interest or party; to win to one's side; to conciliate.

   • If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

   • to gratify the queen, and gain the court

8. (intransitive) To put on weight.

   I've been gaining.

10. (of a clock or watch) To run fast.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

gain (countable and uncountable, plural gains)

1. The act of gaining; acquisition.
   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, Maude

     the lust of gain, in the spirit of Cain

2. What is gained.
3. (electronics) The factor by which a signal is multiplied.
   • 1987, John Borwick, Sound recording practice (page 238)

     There follows the high and low-frequency replay equalization, which normally involves two adjustments with a further control allowing the replay gain to be set.

Antonyms

• loss

Derived terms

• autogain
• gainful
• gainsome
• gain-ground (game)

Translations

Etymology 2

From dialectal English gen, gin, short for again, agen (“against”); also Middle English gain, gayn, gein, ?æn (“against”), from Old English g?an, ge?n (“against”). More at against.

Preposition

gain

1. (obsolete) Against.

Derived terms

• gainful

Etymology 3

From Middle English gayn, gein, geyn (“straight, direct, short, fit, good”), from Old Norse gegn (“straight, direct, short, ready, serviceable, kindly”), from gegn (“opposite, against”, adverb) (whence gagna (“to go against, meet, suit, be meet”)); see below at gain. Adverb from Middle English gayn, gayne (“fitly, quickly”), from the adjective.

Adjective

gain (comparative more gain, superlative most gain)

1. (obsolete) Straight, direct; near; short.

   the gainest way

2. (obsolete) Suitable; convenient; ready.
3. (dialectal) Easy; tolerable; handy, dexterous.
4. (dialectal) Honest; respectable; moderate; cheap.

Translations

Derived terms

• gainly
• gainsome

Adverb

gain (comparative more gain, superlative most gain)

1. (obsolete) Straightly; quickly; by the nearest way or means.
2. (dialectal) Suitably; conveniently; dexterously; moderately.
3. (dialectal) Tolerably; fairly.

   gain quiet (= fairly/pretty quiet)

Etymology 4

Compare Welsh gan (“a mortise”).

Noun

gain (plural gains)

1. (architecture) A square or bevelled notch cut out of a girder, binding joist, or other timber which supports a floor beam, so as to receive the end of the floor beam.

Anagrams

• Agin, Agni, Angi, Gina, NGIA, Nagi, Ngai, a- -ing, ag'in, agin, gina, inga

Basque

Noun

gain

1. summit

French

Etymology

From Middle French gain, from Old French gaaing, from the verb gaaignier (“to earn, gain, seize, conquer by force”), from Frankish *waidanjan (“to graze, forage, hunt”), from Proto-Germanic *waiþ? (“a hunt, pasture, food”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyh?- (“to seek, crave, hunt”). Cognate with Old High German weidan?n (“to hunt, chase”), German Weide (“pasture, pasturage”). Compare also related Old French gain (“harvest time, revival”), from Frankish *waida (“income, food, fodder”) (whence French regain), from the same Germanic source.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/

Noun

gain m (plural gains)

1. (usually in the plural) winnings, earnings, takings
2. (finance) gain, yield

Derived terms

• gain de cause
• gain du temps

Further reading

• “gain” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French gagner (“to gain”), compare Haitian Creole gen.

Verb

gain

1. to have

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old Norse gegn.

Adjective

gain

1. Alternative form of gayn (“direct, fast, good, helpful”)

Etymology 2

From Old Norse gagn.

Noun

gain

1. Alternative form of gayn (“gain, reward, advantage”)

Etymology 3

From Old Norse gegna.

Verb

gain

1. Alternative form of gaynen

Etymology 4

From Old English ?e?n, gæ?n, from Proto-Germanic *gagin; also influenced by Old Norse gegn, from the same Proto-Germanic form. Doublet of gayn (“direct, fast, good, helpful”).

Alternative forms

• gayn, gein, ?æn, ?ein, ?ean, gayne, gen, gan, gaine, geyn

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?n/, /?e?n/, /j?i?n/, /je?n/

Preposition

gain

2. against, next to, touching
3. (figuratively) against, opposed to, counter to, opposing (usually used in religious and spiritual contexts)
4. towards, to, nearing
5. (rare) on, on top of
6. (rare) facing, pointed towards

Descendants

• English: gain (obsolete)
• Scots: gain, gin

References

• “y??n, prep.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

Adverb

gain

1. back (to), returning (to)

References

• “y??n, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

Middle French

Etymology

Old French gaaing.

Noun

gain m (plural gains)

1. income (financial)

Descendants

• French: gain

References

• gain on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ai?n/

Adjective

gain

1. Soft mutation of cain.

Mutation

English

Etymology 1

From Old English earnian, from Middle English ernen, from Proto-West Germanic *a?an?n, from Proto-Germanic *azan?n?.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??n/
• (US) enPR: ûrn, IPA^(key): /?n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)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)

1. (transitive) To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
2. (transitive) To receive payment for work.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. (intransitive) To receive payment for work.

4. (transitive) To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.
5. (transitive) To achieve by being worthy of.

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 ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h?er- (“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)

1. (transitive, archaic) To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.

   Synonyms: run, (Northern England, Scotland) yearn

2. (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)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To strongly long or yearn (for something or to do something).
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To grieve.

Etymology 4

Noun

earn (plural earns)

1. Alternative form of erne

References

Anagrams

• Arne, Near, Nera, eRNA, erna, nare, near, rean

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ér? (“eagle, large bird”). Cognate with Old Frisian *ern, Old Saxon *arn, Old Dutch *arn, Old High German arn, Old Norse ?rn, Gothic ???????????? (ara); and, outside the Germanic languages, with Ancient Greek ????? (órnis, “bird”), Old Armenian ???? (oror, “gull”), Old Irish irar, Lithuanian er?lis, Old Church Slavonic ????? (or?l?).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æ??rn/, [æ??r?n]

Noun

earn m

1. eagle

Declension

Descendants

• English: erne

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian *ern, from Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ér?.

Noun

earn c (plural earnen, diminutive earntsje)

1. eagle
2. (figuratively) miser

Further reading

• “earn”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011