Incur

How to spell incur

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce incur

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does incur mean?

1. verbTo bring something unwelcome, such as a cost, debt, or penalty, upon yourself through your own actions.

Incur in a sentence

• Late payments can incur a hefty fee from the bank.

• Renovating the old house will incur considerable expense.

Where does incur come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Incur comes from the Latin verb incurrere, formed from the prefix in-, meaning 'into' or 'upon', and currere, meaning 'to run'. The literal image is of a person running headlong into something, and in Latin it could describe both physically running toward a place and metaphorically running into a misfortune or penalty. By the time English adopted it in the fifteenth century, the figurative sense had taken over, so that to incur something meant to bring it upon yourself by your own actions, usually something unwelcome such as a debt, a cost, or blame. The same currere root runs through a whole family of English words, including current, occur, recur, and courier, all of which carry that idea of running or flowing. Knowing that the spelling traces back to currere helps explain the single r in the base form, even though the doubled r returns in incurred and incurring.

How the word is built

• in- (into, upon)
• cur (run, from Latin currere 'to run')