Paid

How to spell paid

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce paid

What does paid mean?

1. verbThe past tense and past participle of pay: gave money in return for goods, work, or to settle a debt.

Paid in a sentence

• She paid the electricity bill before the deadline.

• We paid the builder once the work was finished.

Where does paid come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'pay', which entered English in the 1200s from the Old French 'paier', meaning to pay or settle a debt. That French verb came in turn from the Latin 'pacare', which literally meant 'to pacify' or 'to soothe', built on 'pax', the Latin word for peace. The link makes sense once you picture an angry creditor: handing over money was a way of making peace and quieting the demand. Over time the 'pacify' sense faded and the financial meaning took over completely. The spelling 'paid' is irregular: rather than simply adding '-ed' to make 'payed', English long ago collapsed the ending into '-aid', which is why writers are sometimes tempted to write the wrong, regular-looking form. The variant 'payed' does survive, but only in nautical use, as in letting out a rope.

How the word is built

• pay (to give money)
• -d (irregular past tense, replacing the expected -ed with -aid)