hire
n. C / Un. the act of paying to use something for a short time, or a person who has just been given a new job.
n. the act of engaging the services of a person or the temporary use of an object in exchange for payment; also refers to a person recently employed.
The car hire is quite expensive this week.
After a long search, the marketing department finally announced their latest hire to lead the digital campaign.
The rapid expansion of the logistics firm necessitated the hire of several hundred seasonal workers to manage the unprecedented volume of holiday shipments.
From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-West Germanic hūʀiju (“payment”), from the verb hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European kewHs- or *kweHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”). Cognate with West Frisian hier (“hire”), Dutch huur (“lease, rental”), German Low German Hüür (“lease, rental”).
From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian (“to hire”), from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere (“to rent, lease”), Dutch huren (“to rent, lease”), Low German hüren (“to rent”), Danish hyre (“to hire”), Swedish hyra (“to hire”). Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (“to take into employ, pay”); see English sold (“salary, military pay”).
We made a new hiring todayWe made a new hire todayIn business contexts, the person being employed is referred to as a 'hire' rather than the gerund 'hiring'.