Etymology Dictionary

WAGE,  a gage, pledge, stake, pay for service; pl. Wages, pay for service.  (F.,—Teut.)   M. E. wage, usually in the sense of pay, Rob. of Brunne, p. 319, l. 17; for which the pl. wages occurs only two lines above.   'Wage, or hyre.   Stipendium, salarium;' Prompt. Parv.   We now usually employ the word in the plural.—O. F. wage, also gage, a gage, pledge, guarantee (Burguy); hence it came to mean a stipulated payment.   The change from initial w to gu (and even, as here, to g), is not uncommon in O. F.   A verbal sb. from O. F. wager, gager, gagier, to pledge.—Low Lat. wadiare, to pledge.—Low Lat. wadius, or uadium, a pledge.—Goth. wadi, a pledge; whence gawadjon, to pledge.   β. The Low Lat. uadium may be almost equally well derived from Lat. uas (gen. uadis), a pledge; but the O. F. w answers rather to Teut. w than to Lat. u, which usually became v.   γ. However, it makes no ultimate difference, since the Lat. uas (crude form uadi-) and Goth. wadi are cognate words; neither being borrowed from the other.   The similarity of spelling is due to the fact that the Lat. d, in the middle of a word, often stands for dh, and the true crude form of uas is uadhi-; see Curtius, i. 309.   And see Wed.   Der. wage, verb, M. E. wagen, to engage or go bail, P. Plowman, B. iv. 97, from O. F. wager, verb, as above.   Also wag-er, q.v.; en-gage, q.v.   Doublet, gage (1).   ➩ To wage war was formerly to declare war, engage in it, not merely to carry it on, as now; cf. the phr. 'wager of battle;' see Wedgwood. [†]

ADDENDA

WAGE, WAGES.   Anglo-F. wage, a prize, Langtoft's Chron. i. 222; pl. wages, wages, French Chron. of London, p. 83; gages, wages, Stat. of the Realm, i. 137, an. 1300.