FromMiddle Englishernen, fromOld Englishearnian, fromProto-West Germanic*aʀanōn, fromProto-Germanic*azanōną. This verb is denominal from the noun*azaniz(“harvest”).

• (Received Pronunciation)enPR:ûrn,IPA^(key):/ɜːn/
• (US)enPR:ûrn,IPA^(key):/ɝn/
• (Early Modern)IPA^(key):/ɛːrn/,/ɛrn/^[1]

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• Rhymes:-ɜː(ɹ)n
• Homophones:ern,erne,urn

earn (third-person singular simple presentearns,present participleearning,simple past and past participleearnedor(chiefly UK)earnt)

1. (transitive) Togain (success, reward, recognition) through appliedeffort orwork.

   You can have the s'mores: youearned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.

   With their hard work and dedication, theyearned respect and a seat at the table.

   • 1910,Emerson Hough, chapter II, inThe 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, 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 easilyearned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.

   • 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, inBBC Sport:

     England will not be catapulted among the favourites for Euro 2012 as a result of this win, but no victory against Spain isearned easily and it is right they take great heart from their efforts as they now prepare to play Sweden at Wembley on Tuesday.

2. (transitive) Toreceive payment for work or for a role or position held(regardless of whether effort was applied or whether theremuneration isdeserved orcommensurate).

   Heearns seven million dollars a year as CEO.  My bank account is onlyearning one percent interest.

   Sheearns more than forty thousand dollars a year in passive income from her parents' investments — that's what she gets before she even gets out of bed or lifts a finger.

   • 2015, Jason Zweig,The Devil's Financial Dictionary, PublicAffairs,→ISBN, page 1:

     After stuffing themselves and their clients full of dodgy mortgages at bogus prices with shoddy assertions of safety, many of the world's biggest banks toppled when housing prices fell. Meanwhile, financial executives whose irresponsible policies and slipshod oversight contributed to the collapse neverthelessearned—and kept—billions of dollars in bonuses, stock options, and other forms of incentive compensation. Many of them are still basking in baronial splendor, apparently unscathed even by the pangs of guilty conscience.

3. (intransitive) To receive payment for work.

   Now that you areearning, you can start paying me rent.

4. (transitive) To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.

   My CDearns me six percent!

   In that era, all their long, hard, dangerous labor in the mines barelyearned them even enough to eat!

   • 1965, James Holledge,What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page99:

     '[T]hough Iearned her a lot of money, I have nothing but regrets for what I did.'

5. (transitive) To achieve by being worthy of.

   toearn a spot in the top 20

The verb has senses of "get because deserving" and "get whether deserving or not", but because to many ears itconnotes the former meaning, writers and speakers sometimes resist using it for the latter meaning, choosing instead synonyms such asget,take in, orrake in.

• (gain through applied effort or work):deserve,merit,garner,win
• ((transitive) receive payment for work):get,take in,rake in
• ((intransitive) receive payment for work):rake it in
• (cause someone to receive payment or reward):yield,make,generate,render

Probably either:^[2]

• fromMiddle Englisherne,ernen(“to coagulate, congeal”)(chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], ametathetic variant ofrennen(“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), fromOld Englishrinnan(“to run”) (with the variantsiernan,irnan) andOld Norserinna(“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”),^[3] both fromProto-Germanic*rinnaną, ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*h₃er-(“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
• aback-formation fromearning(“(Britain regional, archaic) rennet”).

earn (third-person singular simple presentearns,present participleearning,simple past and past participleearned)(British,dialectal)

1. (transitive,archaic) Tocurdle (milk), especially in thecheesemakingprocess.

   Synonyms:run,(Northern England, Scotland)yearn

2. (intransitive,obsolete) Of milk: to curdle, espcially in the cheesemaking process.

A variant ofyearn.^[4]

earn (third-person singular simple presentearns,present participleearning,simple past and past participleearned)

1. (transitive,obsolete) Tostronglylong oryearn (for something or todo something).^[5]
   • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC, stanza 3:

     And ever as he rode, his hart didearne / To prove his puissance in battell brave.

2. (intransitive,obsolete) Togrieve.^[6]
   • 1599 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene iii],page75, column 2:

     [M]y manly heart dotherne.[…] Boy,briſsle thy Courage vp: ForFalſtaffe hee is dead, and wee muſterne therefore.

earn (pluralearns)

1. Alternative form oferne^[7]
   • 1805,Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, inThe Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London:[…] [James Ballantyne] forLongman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], andA[rchibald] Constable and Co., […],→OCLC:

     They gleamed on many a dusky tarn ,
     Haunted by the lonelyearn

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

earn

1. (Early Middle English)Alternative form ofern(“eagle”)

FromProto-West Germanic*arō.

• IPA^(key):/æ͜ɑrn/,[æ͜ɑrˠn]

earn m

1. eagle
   • 10th century,Exeter Book Riddle 24‎^[2]:

     …Hwīlum iċ onhyrġe þone haswanearn, gūðfugles hlēoþor; hwīlum glidan reorde mūþe ġemǣne, hwīlum mǣwes song, þǣr iċ glado sitte.

     …Sometimes I imitate the greyeagle, a speech of war-bird; sometimes a kite's voice with common mouth, sometimes a gull's song when I sit gladful.

Stronga-stem:

• Middle English:ern,arn,aryn,eerne,eren,erne,eron,ærn,earn(Early Middle English)
  • English:erne
  • Scots:earn,ern,erne

FromOld Frisian*ern, fromProto-West Germanic*arō.

• IPA^(key):/ˈɪə̯n/

earn c (pluralearnen,diminutiveearntsje)

1. eagle
2. (figuratively)miser

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