means a fixed regular payment, usually calculated by the hour, day, or week, that a worker receives in exchange for labor.

from From Old North French 'wage' (standard Old French 'gage'), meaning a pledge or pawn — something put down as security. It traces back to a Germanic root related to 'wed' and 'wager,' the idea of a binding promise. So a wage was once literally a pledge: payment promised in return for service. The same root branches into 'gage' (a pledge of honor) and 'engage.' To wage war, oddly, comes from the same place — to 'pledge' yourself to a fight.