Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “paid” come from?

Paid comes from Old French peier, from Latin picare and pacare, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European peh₂ǵ-, meaning to fasten or make firm.

paid (English): simple past tense and past participle of pay;...

Definitions

  1. simple past tense and past participle of pay;...

Ancestry of “paid”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishpayTo give money or other compensation to in...
2Middle Englishpayenpagan
3Old Frenchpaiierto pay
4Medieval Latinpacareto settle, satisfy; present active infinitive of...
5Latinpācāre—
6Latinpāx—
7Proto-Italicpākspeace
8Proto-Indo-Europeanpéh₂ḱ-speace
9Proto-Indo-Europeanpeh₂ḱ-to join, to attach; agreement, settlement

Words derived from “paid”

  • unpaid
  • repaid
  • underpaid
  • nonpaid
  • unrepaid
  • taxpaid
  • paidest
  • unpaidness
  • nonrepaid
Every word from Proto-Indo-European peh₂ḱ- →