Meaning

noun the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor

noun the property of having material worth (often indicated by the amount of money something would bring if sold)

noun value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something

originFrom Middle English cost, from Old English cost (“option, choice, possibility, manner, way, condition”), from Old Norse kostr (“choice, opportunity, chance, condition, state, quality”), from Proto-Germanic *kustuz (“choice, trial”) (or Proto-Germanic *kustiz (“choice, trial”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“to enjoy, taste”). Cognate with Icelandic kostur, German dialectal Kust (“taste,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0