Where does “payload” come from?
Payload derives from English pay, Middle English lode, Latin picare, Latin pacare, and Proto-Indo-European kelh₂-, tracing a semantic path through concepts of appeasement and obligation.
payload (English): That part of a cargo that produces revenue; The...
Definitions
- That part of a cargo that produces revenue; The...
Ancestry of “payload”, step by step
payload traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English pay
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | pay | To give money or other compensation to in... |
| 2 | Middle English | payen | pagan |
| 3 | Old French | paiier | to pay |
| 4 | Medieval Latin | pacare | to settle, satisfy; present active infinitive of... |
| 5 | Latin | pācāre | — |
| 6 | Latin | pāx | peace |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | pāks | peace |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | péh₂ḱ-s | peace |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | peh₂ḱ- | to join, to attach; agreement, settlement |
via English load
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | load | A burden; a weight to be carried; A worry or... |
| 2 | Middle English | lode | guide |
| 3 | Old English | lād | course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading,... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | *laidu | — |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | laidō | a leading; a way, course, route, direction |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | leyt- | to scratch; to leave, die; to go, go forth, die |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | lēy- | to leave, let; to want, desire; to let; leave... |