hire

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B1 — Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a newly hired employee
  2. noun the act of hiring something or someone
  3. verb engage or hire for work

Etymology

From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju (“payment”), from the verb *hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs- or *kweHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”). Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).

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