Where does “underpaid” come from?

Underpaid derives from English pay, from Old French peier, from Latin picare, pacāre, and paco, all rooted in Latin pax meaning peace, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European pi-.

underpaid (English): getting too little financial compensation for...

Definitions

  1. getting too little financial compensation for...

Ancestry of “underpaid”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishpaidsimple past tense and past participle of pay;...
2EnglishpayTo give money or other compensation to in...
3Middle Englishpayenpagan
4Old Frenchpaiierto pay
5Medieval Latinpacareto settle, satisfy; present active infinitive of...
6Latinpācāre
7Latinpāxpeace
8Proto-Italicpākspeace
9Proto-Indo-Europeanpéh₂ḱ-speace
10Proto-Indo-Europeanpeh₂ḱ-to join, to attach; agreement, settlement
Every word from Proto-Indo-European peh₂ḱ-Every word from Proto-Indo-European péh₂ḱ-sEvery word from Proto-Italic pāks