earned

Earned is the past participle of the verb earn and functions as an adjective meaning obtained as a result of effort, work, or merit. It is used to describe outcomes that are considered deserved because they were earned through action or achievement. Common collocations include earned income, earned reputation, earned promotion, and earned runs in baseball. As a verb, it appears in perfect tenses (has earned, had earned) and can modify nouns in attributive phrases (an earned degree, earned respect).

Origin and related forms: Earned derives from the Old English earnian “to earn, gain by labor,” from Proto-Germanic roots; cognates appear in Dutch ern and German ern. The sense “to obtain through effort” has persisted into Modern English, with the past participle forming “earned” and used adjectivally or in perfect verb forms.

Usage notes and contexts: In tax policy, “earned income” contrasts with “unearned income” (such as investment income). The term is often used to denote merit or entitlement, as in “you earned that promotion.” It can carry moral overtones; “deserved” expresses a normative judgment about justice, while “earned” emphasizes the process of gaining something through effort. In everyday language, the nuance is generally understood as indicating a reward or result that was achieved through work or merit, though the strength of the claim may vary by context.