Where does “repay” come from?
Repay comes from Old French repaier, meaning to return or go back.
repay (English): To pay back
Ancestry of “repay”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old French | repaier | to pay back |
| 2 | Old French | paiier | to pay |
| 3 | Medieval Latin | pacare | to settle, satisfy; present active infinitive of... |
| 4 | Latin | pācāre | — |
| 5 | Latin | pāx | peace |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | pāks | peace |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | péh₂ḱ-s | peace |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | peh₂ḱ- | to join, to attach; agreement, settlement |
Words derived from “repay”