pay

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• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English payen, from Old French paiier (“pay”), from Medieval Latin pācāre (“to settle, satisfy”) from Latin pācāre (“to pacify”). In this sense, displaced native Old English ġield (“pay”) and ġieldan (“to pay”), whence Modern English yield.

pay (third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle paid or (obsolete) payed)

1. (transitive) To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services.

   he paid him to clean the place up

   he paid her off the books and in kind where possible

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.

   • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

     Admiral Hackett: You can pay a soldier to fire a gun. You can pay him to charge the enemy. But you can't pay him to believe.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To discharge, as a debt or other obligation, by giving or doing what is due or required.

   she offered to pay the bill

   he has paid his debt to society

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 37:21:

     The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto)‎^[1], London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:

     The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt.

   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

3. (transitive) To be profitable for.

   It didn't pay him to keep the store open any more.

4. (transitive) To give (something else than money).

   to pay attention

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     not paying me a welcome

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC, page 9:

     They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

5. (intransitive) To be profitable or worth the effort.

   crime doesn’t pay

   it will pay to wait

6. (intransitive) To discharge an obligation or debt.

   He was allowed to go as soon as he paid.

7. (intransitive) To suffer consequences.

   He paid for his fun in the sun with a terrible sunburn.

8. (transitive) To admit that a joke, punchline, etc., was funny.
   • 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 294:

     Sutho took a pull at his Johnny Walker and Coke and laughed that trademark laugh of his and said: `Okay. I'll pay that all right.'

• (to give money): compensate

• Sranan Tongo: paysa
• → Scottish Gaelic: pàigh

pay (countable and uncountable, plural pays)

1. Money given in return for work; salary or wages.

   Many employers have rules designed to keep employees from comparing their pays.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.

pay (not comparable)

1. Operable or accessible on deposit of coins.

   pay toilet

2. Pertaining to or requiring payment.

   pay television

Old French peier, from Latin picare (“to cover with pitch”).

pay (third-person singular simple present pays, present participle paying, simple past and past participle payed or paid)

1. (nautical, transitive) To cover (the bottom of a vessel, a seam, a spar, etc.) with tar or pitch, or a waterproof composition of tallow, resin, etc.; to smear.

• “pay”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “pay”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “pay”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• APY, Yap, pya, yap

pay

1. (Mpakwithi) forehead
2. (Mpakwithi) face

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 187

Other scripts

Cyrillic		пај
Abjad		پای

According to Nişanyan, from Persian پای (pây, “foot”), with the sense ”share” originating from the Persian expression borrowed into Old Anatolian Turkish بای برابر (pây-berâber, “equally, to the same proportion”, literally “equal foot”). The word is present in its modern sense in XIVth century Book of Dede Korkut. The non-Oghuz Turkic cognates, such as Kirgiz and Yakut пай (pay, “share”) are, according to Nişanyan, a borrowing from the Ottoman Turkish پای, via Russian пай (paj). However it is more possibly borrowed from Middle Chinese 派 (pʰaiH) as early as 7th century and inherited by later Turkic languages.

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pay (definite accusative payı, plural paylar)

1. share
2. portion

Declension of pay
	singular	plural
nominative	pay	paylar
definite accusative	payı	payları
dative	paya	paylara
locative	payda	paylarda
ablative	paydan	paylardan
definite genitive	payın	payların

Possessive forms of pay
	nominative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	payım	paylarım
sənin (“your”)	payın	payların
onun (“his/her/its”)	payı	payları
bizim (“our”)	payımız	paylarımız
sizin (“your”)	payınız	paylarınız
onların (“their”)	payı or payları	payları
	accusative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	payımı	paylarımı
sənin (“your”)	payını	paylarını
onun (“his/her/its”)	payını	paylarını
bizim (“our”)	payımızı	paylarımızı
sizin (“your”)	payınızı	paylarınızı
onların (“their”)	payını or paylarını	paylarını
	dative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	payıma	paylarıma
sənin (“your”)	payına	paylarına
onun (“his/her/its”)	payına	paylarına
bizim (“our”)	payımıza	paylarımıza
sizin (“your”)	payınıza	paylarınıza
onların (“their”)	payına or paylarına	paylarına
	locative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	payımda	paylarımda
sənin (“your”)	payında	paylarında
onun (“his/her/its”)	payında	paylarında
bizim (“our”)	payımızda	paylarımızda
sizin (“your”)	payınızda	paylarınızda
onların (“their”)	payında or paylarında	paylarında
	ablative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	payımdan	paylarımdan
sənin (“your”)	payından	paylarından
onun (“his/her/its”)	payından	paylarından
bizim (“our”)	payımızdan	paylarımızdan
sizin (“your”)	payınızdan	paylarınızdan
onların (“their”)	payından or paylarından	paylarından
	genitive
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	payımın	paylarımın
sənin (“your”)	payının	paylarının
onun (“his/her/its”)	payının	paylarının
bizim (“our”)	payımızın	paylarımızın
sizin (“your”)	payınızın	paylarınızın
onların (“their”)	payının or paylarının	paylarının

• paylamaq (“to distribute”)
• paylaşmaq (“to divide among one-selves”)

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “pay”, in Nişanyan Sözlük

From English pi, Ancient Greek πεῖ (peî).

• Hyphenation: pay

pay

1. the name of the sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek
2. (mathematics) an irrational and transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its diameter; approximately 3.14159265358979323846264338327950; usually written π

pay

1. to guide

From Proto-Mayan *pahar.

pay

1. skunk

• Church, Clarence, Church, Katherine (1955) Vocabulario castellano-jacalteco, jacalteco-castellano‎^[2] (in Spanish), Guatemala C. A.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 65; 39

pay

1. A goat

pay

1. moon

• RWC Workshop (eds.). 2015. Komo – English Dictionary. SIL International.

pay

1. too

From Turkish pay.

• IPA^(key): /pɑːj/

pay ?

1. share

From padre, from Latin patrem (“father”), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaj/

pay m (plural pays)

1. (hypocoristic, usually childish) papa, dad, father
   • 1525-1526, Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional, João de Gaia, B 1433: Vosso pai na rua (facsimile)

     Vosso pay na Rua / anta porta sua

     Your dad [is] on the street / before his door

• padre

• mãy, madre

• Galician: pai
• Portuguese: pai (see there for further descendants)

pay m (plural pays)

1. Obsolete spelling of pai.
   • 1545, Garcia de Resende, Liuro das obras de Garcia de Reſẽnde que trata da vida […] do christianiſſimo; muito alto ⁊ muyto poderoſo principe el Rey dõ João o ſegundo deſte nome, page 1:

     De ſeu pay ⁊ ſua mãy ⁊ ſeu nacimento.

     About his father and his mother and his birth.

• IPA^(key): /paj/

pay

1. he, she, it

pay

1. father

Borrowed from English pie.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpai/ [ˈpai̯]
• Rhymes: -ai
• Syllabification: pay

pay m (plural pays)

1. (Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru) pie (food)
2. (Panama, slang, by analogy from sense 1) A highly attractive person, typically, but not exclusively, referring to a female; a bombshell. (Compare English snack)

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *pajay.

pāy

1. rice (with husk)

• mapāy

Ultimately from Middle Chinese 派 (to hand out, distribute).

• IPA^(key): [paj]
• Hyphenation: pay

pay (definite accusative payı, plural paylar)

1. portion
2. (arithmetic) numerator

Inflection
Nominative	pay
Definite accusative	payı
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pay	paylar
Definite accusative	payı	payları
Dative	paya	paylara
Locative	payda	paylarda
Ablative	paydan	paylardan
Genitive	payın	payların
Possessive forms Nominative Singular Plural 1st singular payım paylarım 2nd singular payın payların 3rd singular payı payları 1st plural payımız paylarımız 2nd plural payınız paylarınız 3rd plural payları payları Definite accusative Singular Plural 1st singular payımı paylarımı 2nd singular payını paylarını 3rd singular payını paylarını 1st plural payımızı paylarımızı 2nd plural payınızı paylarınızı 3rd plural paylarını paylarını Dative Singular Plural 1st singular payıma paylarıma 2nd singular payına paylarına 3rd singular payına paylarına 1st plural payımıza paylarımıza 2nd plural payınıza paylarınıza 3rd plural paylarına paylarına Locative Singular Plural 1st singular payımda paylarımda 2nd singular payında paylarında 3rd singular payında paylarında 1st plural payımızda paylarımızda 2nd plural payınızda paylarınızda 3rd plural paylarında paylarında Ablative Singular Plural 1st singular payımdan paylarımdan 2nd singular payından paylarından 3rd singular payından paylarından 1st plural payımızdan paylarımızdan 2nd plural payınızdan paylarınızdan 3rd plural paylarından paylarından Genitive Singular Plural 1st singular payımın paylarımın 2nd singular payının paylarının 3rd singular payının paylarının 1st plural payımızın paylarımızın 2nd plural payınızın paylarınızın 3rd plural paylarının paylarının

• hak

• payda

• pay etmek (“to distribute”)
• paylaşmak (“to divide among one-selves”)
• paylaşık (“shared”)

• Armenian: փայ (pʻay)

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “pay”, in Nişanyan Sözlük