pay

Pronunciation

• IPA: /peɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English paien, borrowed from Old French paiier (“to pay”),^[2][3][4] from Latin pācāre (“to pacify, appease”), in Medieval Latin “to satisfy a creditor, pay”,^[2][3][5] from pāx (“peace”).^[2][4][6] The idea of payment grew from that of pacifying a creditor.^[7][8][5] The noun is inherited from Middle English paie, partly from the verb and partly borrowed from Old French paie.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To please or satisfy; to pay money: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The AHD explains that it is not the payer's peace that matters: Latin pāx also meant “a settlement after war”, so pācāre was “to impose a settlement”, then “to appease”, and Old French paiier came to mean “to satisfy a creditor”.^[4] Romance languages generally took over the sense “to pay”, and in English, as in French, “to please” died out, by 1500.^[3][2] “To suffer (a punishment)” is from the late 14th century.^[2] From the 1580s pay was used where little obligation is meant, as in pay attention, pay a compliment,^[2] and “to be profitable” is from 1812.^[2] Pay up first meant “to make up a difference” (mid-15th century), and “to pay in full” by 1911.^[2] The noun first meant “satisfaction, liking” (about 1300),^[2][10] and “wages” from the late 14th century.^[2][3] Payment dates from about 1375,^[3] payday from 1529, payee from 1758 and paycheck from 1904, in O. Henry.^[3] You pays your money and you takes your choice comes from a Punch cartoon of 1846.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1200 – verb, to please, satisfy; to pay.^[3]
• c. 1300 – noun, satisfaction.^[2][10]
• c. 1375 – payment.^[3]
• late 14th century – wages; to suffer a penalty.^[2]
• by 1500 – the sense “please” dies out.^[2]
• 1529 – payday.^[3]
• 1580s – pay attention.^[2]
• 1758 – payee.^[3]
• 1812 – to be profitable.^[2]
• 1904 – paycheck.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To give money in return for goods or services.
2. To settle a debt or obligation.
3. To suffer a penalty or cost: pay for one's mistakes.
4. To be profitable or worthwhile.
5. To give or offer: pay attention, pay a visit.
6. To reward or punish; to requite.

Noun

1. Money given for work done; wages or salary.
2. The act of paying, or the state of being paid.
3. Paid employment: in the pay of.

Adjective

1. Requiring payment to use: pay television.

Word family

• copay
• overpay
• payable
• payola
• prepay
• repay
• underpay
• pay-as-you-go

Related words

• peace
• pacify
• pact
• appease

Usage notes

A second verb pay, “to coat (a ship's seams) with pitch or tar”, is a separate word from obsolete French peier, from Latin picāre, from pix “pitch”.^[4][5][11] It is dated 1610 by Merriam-Webster's Unabridged^[9] and the early 17th century by the New Oxford.^[7] RHWU calls pay the general word for money given for services, wage or wages pay by the hour, day or week, salary a fixed sum for regular work, usually reckoned by the month or year, and stipend a periodic payment for special services or a grant for creative or scholarly work.^[12]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House