Meanings
- UKdialectalTemptation.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ǵews-“to enjoy, taste”
- Proto-Germanic*kustōną“to try, taste”
- Old Englishcostian“to tempt, try, prove, examine”
- Old Englishcostnian
- Old Englishcostnung“temptation, testing, trial, tribulation”
- Middle Englishcostning
- Englishcostning
From Middle English costning, costnunge, from Old English costnung (“temptation, testing, trial, tribulation”), from Old English costnian, variant of Old English costian (“to tempt, try, prove, examine”), from Proto-Germanic *kustōną (“to try, taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵews- (“to enjoy, taste”), equivalent to cost + -ing. Cognate with German kosten (“to taste”). Related to choose.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
costning. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/costning
“costning.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/costning. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “costning,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/costning.
Source: costning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.