earn

Earn comes from Middle English ernen, from Old English earnian, tracing back through Proto-West Germanic *aʀanōn to Proto-Germanic *azanōną — a verb built from the noun *azaniz, meaning 'harvest.'

The word started as an action tied directly to the physical work of harvesting, and over time came to mean gaining or deserving something more generally, whether money, respect, or rest.

It shares deep roots with the idea of a harvest itself, since the verb was formed directly from a Proto-Germanic noun meaning that very thing — so to 'earn' something was, at root, to bring in a crop.