wage

Meanings

Noun

• An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour.

Verb

• To wager, bet.
• To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
• To employ for wages; to hire.
• To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
• To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
• To give security for the performance of

Related

Similar words

• earnings, pay, salary

Origin

• From Middle English wage, from Anglo-Norman wage, from Old Northern French wage, a northern variant of Old French gauge, guage (whence modern French gage), Medieval Latin wadium, from Frankish *wadi (cognate with Old English wedd), from Proto-Germanic *wadją ("pledge"), from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- ("to pledge, redeem a pledge"). Akin to Old Norse veðja ("to pledge"), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹, Dutch wedde. Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.
• From Middle English wagen ("to pledge"), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wagier, a northern variant of Old French guagier (whence modern French gager), itself either from guage or from a derivative of Frankish *wadi, possibly through a Vulgar Latin intermediate *wadiō from *wadium.