Fines

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /faɪnz/

Definitions

1. Monetary amounts imposed as penalties for breaking laws or rules
2. Payments demanded as punishment for committing offenses or infractions
3. Sums of money charged as consequences for wrongdoing or breaches of regulations

Etymology: The plural "fines" is a single word with a double life. Its sense of a penalty comes from a Medieval Latin word, "fīnis", meaning "a payment in settlement or tax," so the money was the settlement of a dispute rather than a punishment in itself. The same Latin root, "fīnis" meaning "end" or "boundary," gave English a pair of words that look unrelated: the modern noun "fine" as a payment, and the adjective "fine" meaning thin or delicate, which came through Old French "fin" from the same source. The payment sense entered English in Middle English as "fyn," borrowed from Old French, and it was the idea of closing a matter that made the money the point. Paying a fine ended the case. Old French also had a verb "finer," meaning to finish or settle, which is the root of the English verb "finish," so the penalty and the act of completing a transaction share a family.

Synonyms: penalties, charges, fees

Antonyms: rewards, incentives