Etymologically
Log in

payload

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpeɪləʊd/[1]
  • US: /ˈpeɪloʊd/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from English pay + load,[2][3][4][5] and the OED compares the earlier paying load.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A load carried by a vehicle, especially the part of it that earns revenue, such as passengers and cargo: 1914, in the Transactions of the Society of Automotive Engineers.[2][6] Etymonline also dates the word by 1914, first of the paying part of a truck's load and later of an aircraft's.[3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1925–30.[5]

Semantic evolution

From the earning part of a truck's load, the word passed to aircraft;[3] from 1920 it also meant the loading capacity of a vehicle.[2] The military sense, the load of explosives carried by an aircraft or missile, is recorded from 1939 in the OED,[2][7] while Etymonline dates the sense "bombs carried by a plane or missile" to 1936.[3] Space travel gave it the load carried by a rocket, such as a manned capsule or a set of instruments, from 1952.[2][7] In computing it came to mean the part of a virus or other malware that does the damage (1989) and the actual message carried in transmitted data, as opposed to a header (1990).[2] Merriam-Webster also records a sense the financial burden of the regular payrolls of a business.[6]

Timeline

  • 1914 – a load carried by a vehicle, especially the part that earns revenue.[2][6][3]
  • 1920 – the loading capacity of a vehicle.[2]
  • 1939 – the load of explosives carried by an aircraft or missile.[2][7] Etymonline dates this sense to 1936.[3]
  • 1952 – the load carried by a rocket or spacecraft.[2][7]
  • 1989 – the damaging part of a computer virus.[2]
  • 1990 – the actual data in a transmission, apart from the header.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The part of a vehicle's load that earns revenue, such as passengers and cargo; also the total weight of these that a vehicle carries or can carry.[8][9][2]
  2. The crew, instruments or equipment carried by a spacecraft or rocket for the purpose of the flight.[8][9][2]
  3. The explosive charge carried by a missile or an aircraft, or in the warhead of a missile.[8][6][9][2]
  4. (computing) The part of a computer virus or other malware that causes its harmful effects.[2]
  5. (computing) The actual information carried in a set of transmitted data, as opposed to the header and other automatically added data.[2]

Word family

  • payload specialist

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press