wage
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)
Derived terms
- hourly wage
- lost wages
- minimum wage
- wage moderation
- wage scale
Translations
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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)
- (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
- My life I never held but as a pawn
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Hakluyt to this entry?)
- c. 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear
- (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.
- I fear the power of Percy is too weak
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- to wake and wage a danger profitless
- c. 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1
- (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
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xviij, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
- (transitive) To conduct or carry out (a war or other contest).
- 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are waged on and off the Game Of Thrones battlefield (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club:
- Setting our sights back on King’s Landing, where the Last War will be waged, makes a lot of sense, even if it does feel a bit anticlimactic after last week’s deadly, blustery maelstrom.
- 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
- pond'ring which of all his Sons was fit
-
- (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.
- (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser
- (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
German
Middle Dutch
Etymology
From Old Dutch wāga, from Proto-Germanic *wēgō.
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Derived terms
Descendants
- Dutch: waag
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Old Northern French wage, from Frankish *waddī, from Proto-Germanic *wadją. Doublet of gage and wed.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈwaːdʒ(ə)/
Noun
wage (plural wages)
Related terms
References
- “wāǧe (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.
Etymology 2
From Old Northern French wagier.
Old French
Noun
wage f (oblique plural wages, nominative singular wage, nominative plural wages)
- wave (moving part of a liquid, etc.)
Etymology 2
see gage