wage

English Online Dictionary. What means wage‎? What does wage mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /weɪd͡ʒ/
• 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

• earnings, pay, salary

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.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear

     My life I never held but as a pawn
     To wage against thine 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.
   • c. 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1

     I fear the power of Percy is too weak
     To wage an instant trial with the King.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     to wake and wage a danger profitless

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

   • (Can we date this quote?) Raphael Holinshed

     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).
   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other.

   • 1709, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe

     pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit
     To Reign, and wage immortal War with Wit

5. (transitive) To adventure, or lay out, for hire or reward; to hire out.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser

     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

• wager (agent noun)

Translations

Anagrams

• waeg

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Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

wage

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of wagen

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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.

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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

• wâgen

Descendants

• Dutch: waag

Further reading

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

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Middle English

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• wag, vage

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.

Related terms

• wagen

Descendants

• English: wage
• Scots: wage

References

• “wāǧe (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

Etymology 2

From Old Northern French wagier.

Verb

wage

1. Alternative form of wagen

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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