Etymograph

English

wage

Wage comes from Middle English wage ‘a wage’, from Anglo-Norman wage, from Frankish *waddī, from Proto-Germanic *wadją ‘pledge’, from PIE *wedʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wedʰ-1‘to pledge’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wadją1‘pledge’reconstructed
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*waddī1reconstructed
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gauge1
  5. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400wage1northern variant of gauge
  6. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400wage1
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wage1‘a wage’
  8. Englishtodaywage1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English wage

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wedʰ-Wiktionary, English wage‘to pledge’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wadjąWiktionary, English wage‘pledge’reconstructed
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*waddīWiktionary, English wagereconstructed
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gaugeWiktionary, English wage
  5. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400wageWiktionary, English wagenorthern variant of gauge
  6. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400wageWiktionary, English wage
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wageWiktionary, English wage‘a wage’
  8. EnglishtodaywageWiktionary, English wage

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- ‘to pledge, redeem a pledge’

weed, bahu, 6 more

through Proto-Germanic *wadją ‘pledge’

wedding, engagement, engage, wed, wedlock, gage, 1 more

Another origin of wage

  1. Frankishc. 250–700*waddīuncertain
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400guagier
  3. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400wagiernorthern variant of guagier
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wagen‘to pledge’
  5. Englishtodaywage

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 *waddī, possibly through a Vulgar Latin intermediate *wadiō from *wadium (see the noun above).

Today it means

noun 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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “wage”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- / wage

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