Money or rewards given as payment, often as a bribe, settlement, or profit earned from an investment or effort.
From 'pay' (via Old French 'paier' from Latin 'pacare') plus 'off' (Old English 'of'). The compound 'payoff' emerged in the early 1900s.
The word 'payoff' is perfectly ambiguous—it can mean legitimate profit, a bribe, or the climax of a story (the 'payoff' joke at the end)—showing how business language sometimes quietly enters colloquial speech!
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