payback

Etymology

It is formed from English pay + back, after the phrasal verb pay back,^[2][3][4] and the OED compares the earlier noun paying back.^[2] Dictionary.com takes it as the noun use of the verb phrase.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something repaid or given in return for a service or favour; a reward: 1718, in an Answer to a Late Insolent Libel.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to 1946,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1955–60.^[5]

Semantic evolution

After its early use for a return or reward, the word settled in finance as the return on an investment, especially when it equals the outlay (Etymonline, 1946).^[2][4] From 1965 it was also the payback period, the time an investment takes to pay for itself.^[2][3] In Australia it named, from 1935, the Aboriginal custom of revenge, or an act of revenge under it,^[2] and Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes a similar use of feud revenge from Papua in the 1930s and 1940s.^[7] The general sense "retaliation, revenge" followed: Green's has it in American use in 1951, Etymonline by 1957,^[7][4] and the OED from 1973.^[2]

Timeline

• 1718 – something repaid; a reward or return.^[2][6]
• 1935 – the Australian Aboriginal custom of revenge.^[2]
• 1946 – the net return on an investment.^[4]
• 1951 – revenge, retaliation, in American use.^[7]
• 1965 – the payback period of an investment.^[2]
• 1973 – revenge in general.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The return on an investment, especially one equal to the money first laid out.^[6][8][2]
2. The time an investment takes to pay for itself; the payback period.^[2][3]
3. (informal) Revenge or retaliation: The attack was payback for last year's defeat.^[8][7][2]
4. Something given in return; requital.^[6][2]

Related words

• repay

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press