wage
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
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 *waddī (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 (wadi), Dutch wedde. Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.
Noun
wage (plural wages)
- (often in plural) 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.
- Before her promotion, her wages were 20% less.
Synonyms
Derived terms
- board wage
- college wage premium
- family wage
- hangman's wages
- hourly wage
- living wage
- lost wages
- lost wages
- maximum wage
- minimum wage
- shadow real wage
- slave to the wage
- slave wage
- starvation wage
- time wage
- tip wage credit
- union wage premium
- wage bill
- wage credit
- wage drift
- wage earner
- wage-fund doctrine
- wage labor
- wage laborer
- wage labour
- wage labourer
- wage moderation
- wage packet
- wage premium
- wage-push inflation
- wage scale
- wage share
- wage slave
- wage slavery
- wage stop
- wage theft
- wage thief
- wage-worthy
Translations
money paid to a worker
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Etymology 2
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 *waddī, possibly through a Vulgar Latin intermediate *wadiō from *wadium.
Verb
wage (third-person singular simple present wages, present participle waging, simple past and past participle waged)
- (transitive, obsolete) To wager, bet.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thine enemies
- (transitive, obsolete) To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- I fear the power of Percy is too weak / To wage an instant trial with the King.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
- to wake and wage a danger profitless.
- (transitive, obsolete) To employ for wages; to hire.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
- Thenne said Arthur I wille goo with yow / Nay said the kynges ye shalle not at this tyme / for ye haue moche to doo yet in these landes / therfore we wille departe / and with the grete goodes that we haue goten in these landes by youre yeftes we shalle wage good knyghtes & withstande the kynge Claudas malyce
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Scotlande, […]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 113, column 1:
- [B]etter it as for him to trie the vttermoſt pointe of fortunes happe, than with diſhonour ſo to yeelde at the firſt blow of hyr frowarde hande, conſidering the abundance of treaſure whiche he had in ſtore, wherewith hee might wage ſouldiers and menne of warre out of Germanie and other places, in number ſufficient to matche with his enimies.
- (transitive) To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
- 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 28 January 2021:
- Setting our sights back on King’s Landing, where the Last War will be waged, makes a lot of sense, even if it does feel a bit anticlimactic after last week’s deadly, blustery maelstrom.
- 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
- The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other.
- 1709, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe:
- pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit / To Reign, and wage immortal War with Wit
- (transitive) To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18:
- Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage.
- (obsolete, law, UK) To give security for the performance of[1]
Usage notes
- "Wage" collocates strongly with "war", leading to expressions such as To wage peace, or To wage football implying the inclusion of a large element of conflict in the action.
Derived terms
Translations
to conduct or carry out
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References
- “wage”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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