means Something good given in return for effort, achievement, good behavior, or service — or the act of giving it.

from From Old French 'reward,' a Norman dialect variant of 'regard' — to look at, to heed, to take notice of. Both trace back to the verb 'regarder,' built from 're-' plus 'guarder' (to guard, to watch). So at its root a reward is what you get when someone has truly looked at what you did: notice transmuted into payment. The same root that lets you 'regard' something with attention also lets you 'reward' it with a prize — the gaze and the gift are linguistic cousins.