Etimology
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.
noun
offer (plural offers)
A proposal that has been made.
Something put forth, bid, proffered or tendered.
(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.
Examples
What's in his offer?
I decline your offer to contract.
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.
His offer was $3.50 per share.
His first letter was not a real offer, but an attempt to determine interest.
Etimology
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.
verb
offer (third-person singular simple present offers, present participle offering, simple past and past participle offered)
(intransitive) To propose or express one's willingness (to do something).
(transitive) To present in words; to proffer; to make a proposal of; to suggest.
(transitive) To place at someone’s disposal; to present (something) to be either accepted or turned down.
(transitive) To present (something) to God or gods as a gesture of worship, or for a sacrifice.
(transitive, engineering) To place (something) in a position where it can be added to an existing mechanical assembly.
(transitive) To bid, as a price, reward, or wages.
(intransitive) To happen, to present itself.
(obsolete) To make an attempt; typically used with at.
(transitive) To put in opposition to; to manifest in an offensive or defensive way; to threaten.
Examples
She offered to help with her homework.
Everybody offered an opinion.
He offered use of his car for the week. He offered his good will for the Councilman's vote.
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.
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.
Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement.
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.
I offered twenty dollars for it. The company is offering a salary of £30,000 a year.
The occasion offers, and the youth complies.
The opportunity however did not offer till next morning, for Phœbe did not come to bed till long after I was gone to ſleep:
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.
I will not offer at that I cannot master.
He would be offering at the shepherd's voice.
[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; […]
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 […]
to offer violence to somebody
The peasants offered no resistance as they were rounded up.
Related words
related terms
offering
offertory
oblate
oblation
Etimology
off + -er
noun
offer (plural offers)
(used in combinations from phrasal verbs) agent noun of off
Examples
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.