Calculating or determining the cost or price of something; or the actual cost itself.
From Old French 'coster,' which comes from Latin 'constare' meaning 'to stand together' or 'to come to.' The idea is that the cost is the amount that 'stands together' as a total price.
The phrase 'it cost me' originally meant something like 'it stands firm at this price'—the Latin root is about firmness and standing. Prices were treated almost like solid, immovable facts rather than negotiable things.
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