Other forms: offered, offers, offering
To offer is to hold something out and say the other person may have it — a chair, a lift, a job, an apology. The essential part is that it can be refused, which is what separates offering from giving.
The grammar has two patterns and both are common: offer somebody something, and offer something to somebody. It also takes to plus a verb — she offered to drive — which is the pattern for volunteering. The noun covers the proposal, the price proposed for a house, and a reduced price in a shop: on offer means both available and discounted, and which one is meant depends entirely on the shop.
1verbofferTo hold something out for somebody to take if they want it.~74%
“She offered him a chair and he refused it.”
2verbverbTo say you are willing to do something.~4%
“He offered to walk her home.”
3nounproposalA proposal, especially of money or a job.~20%
“The offer was withdrawn on Friday.”
4nounreducedA reduced price, for a limited time.~2%
“The coffee is on offer until the end of the month.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 27 sentences found in the wild and placed 24 of them on a sense (3 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
offer is a way of proposing.
Latin offerre is ob-, towards, plus ferre, to carry or bring — to bring something before somebody. Its past participle gives oblation and the religious sense of offering, which came into English first: Old English offrian meant to make a sacrifice.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰer-
Latin
offerō — to present, bring before
Old French
offre — offer
Old English
offrian — offer or make a sacrifice
Middle English
offer
English, today
offer
Built from
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 frr offer (“sacrifice, donation, fee”), Dutch offer (“offering, sacrifice”), German Opfer (“victim, sacrifice”), Danish offer (“victim, sacrifice”), Icelandic offr (“offering”). See verb below.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA