AntonymsĮarn, gain, hoard, save, stiff, withhold. “We are paying the rent.”“She paid for Google ads.” SynonymsĬompensate, disburse, give, refund, recompense, reimburse, remunerate, settle, spend, tip. The word pay is an irregular verb because the present and future tense forms are simply “ pay,” while all continuous tenses use the form “ paying.” Meanwhile, the past participle of pay is paid. “The university paid off the pending lawsuits.” The word paid is the past tense form of the verb pay, which is the act financially compensating another in exchange for services, goods, loans, debt, or even charity. The verb “ pay” is a derivative of Old Northern French peier and Latin picāre, which means “ to smear with pitch.” What does paid mean? The unusual verb originated around the 17th century or between 16. The dreaded task was necessary for wooden ships because the Devil seam is the most prone to leaking, but it also required sailors to sit in a chair suspended between the ship and ocean–– a dangerous task, indeed.Ĭrewmembers called this external predicament as being “ between the Devil and the deep blue sea.” And if you have the “ the Devil to pay, and no pitch hot,” that means you’re either doomed for disaster, destined to fall off the boat, or the ship is ready to sink. So, if you’re “ paying the Devil,” you’re paying the seam outside of the boat and below the natural water level. When the ship is level with the water, the seam is closest to the water level. Within nautical vocabulary, the “ Devil seam” is the longest and topmost seam in the hull of a wooden ship, extending from the ship’s bow to the stern. But historically, the phrase “ the Devil to pay” involves the dreaded task of caulking or paying the “ Devil seam.” “ The Devil to Pay” is another strange idiom sailors use for the act of “ paying.” Nowadays, English speakers associate this phrase with the unintended consequences of a bad deed. Meanwhile, the phrase “ pay out” references the act of steadily loosening a sail line, while “ pay off” describes the act of allowing a ship to “ fall off leeward,” or toward the direction of the wind. For example, the expression “ to pay with slush” describes the act of covering wooden seams with tar or animal fat to protect the ship from storms. There are several nautical meanings of the word “ pay” or “ payed,” but phrases often incorporate the term’s niche definitions interchangeably. “The Devil to Pay” and other nautical idioms with the word pay For example,Ĭaulk, dam, plug, seal, waterproof. For example,Īlternatively, we can use “ payed” in the nautical sense to describe lubricating cables or letting out a rope with some slack in it. The verb pay is the act of caulking, coating, or filling the seams of a wooden ship with the noun “ pay,” a type of pitch or wood tar. We say that pay is “nautical” because it’s a vocabulary term involving sea ship navigation. The verb “ payed” is the past-tense form of the nautical word pay. If you’re discussing tar, pitch, boat seams, or anything of the nautical sense–– as long as you’re using the past-tense, the correct spelling is payed. If you’re discussing money or trade in the past tense, the correct form is paid. In this case, “ paid” is a historical variant of “ payed,” and it should not be confused with the “ paid” (as in past compensation). However, the nautical payed is sometimes spelled as “ paid” when the subject of boat cables is discussed. paid, the two words sound the same but have different meanings. Other examples of homophones include lead vs.

A homophone is a set of words that we pronounce them the same, and yet, they have different spellings and meanings. The main reason people misspell “ paid” as “ payed” is because the two words are homophones.

Naturally, the word made its way into English phrases for lines such as “ the Devil to pay,” which we will discuss later in full.įor the present times, it’s more common for English writers to use “ paid” than “ payed.” This isn’t just because wooden ships are hardly a thing, but because “ paid” is the past participle of the verb ‘ to pay.’ Unfortunately, the word “ payed” is a common misspelling of “ paid” and, most of the time, people don’t realize how they’re two separate words. Remember tar? The sticky substance found in tree bark? Before the time of steel ships, the preferred ship sealants included wood tar or pitch to avoid water leaks on wooden boats. More specifically, the nautical “ payed” incorporates the noun “ pay,” which is another word for wood tar. The word “ paid” involves the concept of compensation, but “ payed” is a nautical slang term that describes various tasks performed by a sailor on a ship. The words payed and paid sound the same, but when it comes to word meanings, they are completely unrelated.

Payed vs paid