offer

• offre (obsolete)
• offa (pronunciation spelling)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒfə(ɹ)/, /ˈɔːfə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔfɚ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑfɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒfə(ɹ), -ɔːfə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: of‧fer

From Middle English offer, from Old English offrian (“offer or make a sacrifice”) rather than from Old French offre (“offer”), from offrir (“to offer”), from Latin offerō (“to present, bring before”). Compare North Frisian offer (“sacrifice, donation, fee”), Dutch offer (“offering, sacrifice”), German Opfer (“victim, sacrifice”), Danish offer (“victim, sacrifice”), Icelandic offr (“offering”). See verb below.

offer (plural offers)

1. A proposal that has been made.

   What's in his offer?

   I decline your offer to contract.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

2. Something put forth, bid, proffered or tendered.

   His offer was $3.50 per share.

3. (law) An invitation to enter into a binding contract communicated to another party which contains terms sufficiently definite to create an enforceable contract if the other party accepts the invitation.

   His first letter was not a real offer, but an attempt to determine interest.

• → Tokelauan: ofo

From Middle English offren, offrien. 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”). Cognate with Old Frisian offria (“to offer”), Old Dutch offrōn (“to offer”), German opfern (“to offer”), Old Norse offra (“to offer”). More at ob-, bear.

offer (third-person singular simple present offers, present participle offering, simple past and past participle offered)

1. (intransitive) To propose or express one's willingness (to do something).

   She offered to help with her homework.

2. (transitive) To present in words; to proffer; to make a proposal of; to suggest.

   Everybody offered an opinion.

3. (transitive) To place at someone’s disposal; to present (something) to be either accepted or turned down.

   He offered use of his car for the week.  He offered his good will for the Councilman's vote.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

     Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.

   1. (transitive) To present (something) for sale.
4. (transitive) To present (something) to God or gods, as a gesture of worship or as a sacrifice.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus xxix:36:

     Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement.

5. (transitive, of a thing) To present (something) to the sight etc.; to provide for use, consideration etc.

   Synonyms: offer up, showcase

   The city offers beautiful architecture.

6. (transitive, engineering) To place (something) in a position where it can be added to an existing mechanical assembly.
   • 2009, Roger Williams, Triumph TR2, 3, 3A, 4 & 4A:

     The next stage is to remove and replace the top part of the right side lip, and offer the lid to the car to ensure all the shapes and gaps are okay.

7. (transitive) To bid, as a price, reward, or wages.

   I offered twenty dollars for it. The company is offering a salary of £30,000 a year.

8. (intransitive) To happen, to present itself.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     The occasion offers, and the youth complies.

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 72:

     The opportunity however did not offer till next morning, for Phœbe did not come to bed till long after I was gone to ſleep:

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 7:

     Much was I disappointed upon learning that the little packet for Nantucket had already sailed, and that no way of reaching that place would offer, till the following Monday.

9. (obsolete) To make an attempt; typically used with at.
   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:

     I will not offer at that I cannot master.

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     He would be offering at the shepherd's voice.

   • 1711 December 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Jonathan Swift], The Conduct of the Allies, and of the Late Ministry, in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War, 4th edition, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1711, →OCLC, pages 19–20:

     [W]ithout offering at any other Remedy, without taking time to conſider the Conſequences, or to reflect on our own Condition, we haſtily engaged in a War which hath coſt us ſixty Millions; […]

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     Here Jones, after expressing the utmost uneasiness, offered to stop her mouth:—“Hey-day! why sure, Mr Jones, you will let me speak; I speaks no scandal, for I only says what I heard from others […]

10. (transitive) To put in opposition to; to manifest in an offensive or defensive way; to threaten.

    to offer violence to somebody

    The peasants offered no resistance as they were rounded up.

    • 1979 December 15, “Two Assaulted in Bay Village in Separate Incidents”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 21, page 3:

      A car turned the corner and stopped, and three or four people emerged and approached her, grabbing her purse. When she offered resistance, one of the assailants took out a knife and stabbed her in the lower abdomen and legs.

    • 2013, Andrew Wiest, Vietnam: A View from the Front Lines, page 125:

      The Viet Cong and NVA tended to offer battle only when they felt that they held a tactical advantage – if they didn't they usually hunkered down in their nearly invisible bunkers and let the Americans pass.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to-infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• offering
• offertory
• oblate
• oblation

From off +‎ -er.

offer (plural offers)

1. (used in combinations from phrasal verbs) agent noun of off
   • 2003, James-Jason Gantt, Losing Summer‎^[1], →ISBN, page 146:

     Once you finally discover yourself a dismember-er, a de-limber, a fucking head-cutter-offer, the most simple of tasks — enjoying a long walk outside, seeing a movie, conversing with a stranger in the library — all become prized and over-inflated moments of elation.

• offre, reffo

offer n (singular definite ofret or offeret, plural indefinite ofre)

1. sacrifice
2. victim

• slagteoffer
• ofre

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔfər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: of‧fer
• Rhymes: -ɔfər

From Middle Dutch offere, from Old Dutch [Term?].

offer n (plural offers, diminutive offertje n)

1. sacrifice
2. victim

• Negerhollands: offer
• → Papiamentu: offer (dated)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

offer

1. inflection of offeren:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

offer

1. second-person singular present active imperative of offerō

From Old Norse offr.

offer n (definite singular offeret, indefinite plural offer or ofre, definite plural ofra or ofrene)

1. a sacrifice
2. a victim, a casualty

• dødsoffer
• selvmordsoffer

• “offer” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse offr.

• IPA^(key): /ɔfɛr/

offer n (definite singular offeret, indefinite plural offer, definite plural offera)

1. a sacrifice
2. a victim, a casualty

   Offera var alle drepne på same måten.

   The victims were all killed in the same manner.

• dødsoffer
• soloffer

• “offer” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Old Norse offr.

• Audio:

  (file)

offer n

2. a sacrifice
3. a victim

   ett offer för omständigheterna

   a victim of circumstance[s]

A sacrifice in the sense of giving something up for some purpose, like a personal sacrifice, is more commonly an uppoffring.

• erbjudande (“offer”)

• offer in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• offer in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• offer in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• offer in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)
• offer in Knut Fredrik Söderwall, Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket, del 2:1: M-T

• Roffe

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (North Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈɔfɛr/
  • (North Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈɔfar/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈoːfɛr/, /ˈɔfɛr/
• Rhymes: -ɔfɛr

offer f (plural offerau or offeriau or offrau)

1. equipment

• offeryn (“instrument, tool”)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “offer”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies