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GAIN (1),
profit, advantage. (Scand.) M. E. gain, gein; spelt gain,
Chaucer, C. T. 536, ed. Tyrwhitt (but the reading is bad, not agreeing with the
best MSS.); gein, St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne, p. 18, l. 3; gaȝhen,
Ormulum, 13923.—Icel. gagn, gain, advantage, use. + Swed. gagn, benefit, profit. + Dan.
gavn, gain. β. Not found in German; but the root-verb
ga-geigan, to
gain, occurs in Mœso-Gothic, Mk. viii. 36, Lu, ix. 25, 1 Cor. ix. 19;
suggesting a base GAG, not found elsewhere. γ. Hence was formed the
(obsolete) M. E. verb gainen, to profit, be of use, avail, gen. used
impersonally; see Chaucer, C. T. 1178, &c. This answers to Icel.
and Swed. gagna, to help, avail, Dan. gavne, to benefit. See further
below. Der. gain-ful, gain-ful-ly, gain-ful-ness, gain-less,
gain-less-ness. GAIN
(2), to acquire, get,
win. (Scand.) Really a derivative of the sb. above, and independent of the F.
gagner, with which it was easily confused, owing to the
striking similarity in form and sense, [Thus Cotgrave gives 'gaigner, to
gain.'] Not in early use. 'Yea, though he gaine and cram
his purse with crounes;' Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 69. That
Gascoigne took the verb from the sb. is evident; for he has just above, in st.
66; 'To get a gaine by any trade or kinde.' See Gain
(1). β. Still, the F. word probably influenced the use of the
pre-existing E. one; and superseded the old use of the M. E. gainen, to
profit. ¶ The etymology of F.
gagner, O. F. gaigner (Cotgrave),
gaagnier, gaaignier (Burguy) = Ital. guadagnare, is from the O. H. G.
weidanjan*,
not found, but equivalent to O. H. G. weidenón, to pasture, which was the
original sense, and is still preserved in the F. sb. gagnage, pasturage,
pasture-land.—O. H. G. weida (G. weide), pasturage, pasture-ground; cf. M.
H. G. weiden; to pasture, hunt. + Icel. veiðr, hunting, fishing, the
chase; veiða, to catch, to hunt. + A. S. waðu, a wandering, journey, a hunt;
Grein, ii. 636. Cf. Lat. uenari ( = eutnari), to hunt.
Perhaps from ✔WI,
to go, drive; cf. Skt. ví, to go, approach, sometimes used as a substitute for
aj, to drive. See Fick, iii. 302; i. 430.
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