Payment for work or services, typically calculated on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. Money received by workers in exchange for their labor.
From Old French 'wage' meaning 'pledge' or 'security,' ultimately from Germanic 'wadi' meaning 'pledge' or 'guarantee.' The original sense was of a pledge or promise to pay, evolving into the payment itself. The concept reflects the contractual nature of employment relationships.
The word 'wages' reveals that getting paid was originally about trust and promises - it literally meant 'pledge,' showing how employment has always been fundamentally about human agreements and faith in future payment. The phrase 'wages of sin' uses this original sense of wages as consequences or what you earn through your actions.
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