wage

See also: Wage and wäge

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /weɪd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪdʒ

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). Compare also the doublet gage. More at wed.

Noun

wage (plural wages)

  1. 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.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

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 *waddi, *wadja, possibly through a Vulgar Latin intermediate *wadiare from *wadium.

Verb

wage (third-person singular simple present wages, present participle waging, simple past and past participle waged)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To wager, bet.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thy enemies.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Hakluyt to this entry?)
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To expose oneself to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To employ for wages; to hire.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter 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
    • Raphael Holinshed (1529-1580)
      abundance of treasure which he had in store, wherewith he might wage soldiers
  4. (transitive) To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
    • John Dryden (1631-1700)
      [He pondered] which of all his sons was fit / To reign and wage immortal war with wit.
    • Isaac Taylor (1787–1865)
      The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other.
  5. (transitive) To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
    • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
      Thou […] must wage thy works for wealth.
  6. (obsolete, law, Britain) To give security for the performance of.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)
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

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)

Verb

wage

  1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of wagen

German

Verb

wage

  1. First-person singular present of wagen.
  2. First-person singular subjunctive I of wagen.
  3. Third-person singular subjunctive I of wagen.
  4. Imperative singular of wagen.

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch wāga, from Proto-Germanic *wēgō.

Noun

wâge f

  1. weight
  2. a certain weight, of which the exact value varied
  3. weighing scale
  4. weighhouse

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

  • “waghe (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • “wage (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old Northern French wage, from Frankish *waddī, from Proto-Germanic *wadją. Doublet of gage and wed.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈwaːdʒ(ə)/

Noun

wage (plural wages)

  1. A wage; earnings.
  2. Money reserved for the payment of salaries.
  3. An earned positive consequence.
  4. A promise, pact, or agreement.
Descendants
References

Etymology 2

From Old Northern French wagier.

Verb

wage

  1. Alternative form of wagen

Old French

Etymology 1

Old Norse vágr.

Noun

wage f (oblique plural wages, nominative singular wage, nominative plural wages)

  1. wave (moving part of a liquid, etc.)

Etymology 2

see gage

Noun

wage m (oblique plural wages, nominative singular wages, nominative plural wage)

  1. Alternative form of gage
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