Etymology

needs-cost

Today it means: Of necessity or need; necessarily. Full definition →

Middle English needis cost
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromneedis cost
  2. English todayneeds-cost

From Middle English needis cost, nedes cost, from needes (genitive of need (“need”)) + cost (“means”); synchronically analyzable as a univerbation of needs + cost.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.