Overpaying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of providing payment that surpasses the true cost or market value of goods or services rendered
2. Engaging in the practice of giving a monetary amount greater than what is fair or necessary for a transaction
3. The process of giving more money than is warranted for an item or service purchased

Etymology: Paying too much is an old idea in English, but the word itself is built plainly: "over-" attached to "pay." The prefix comes from Old English "ofer," which carried the sense of excess or going beyond a measure, and it appears in many English verbs such as "overeat" and "overdo." "Pay" traces back through Middle English "payen" to Old French "paier," which descends from Latin "pācāre," meaning to pacify or appease. Latin "pācāre" itself came from "pāx," peace, so the act of settling a debt was once bound up with calming a creditor. The sense of "pay" shifted over centuries. In Latin the root was about making peace, and only later did it come to mean discharging an obligation. That is why the everyday verb now centers on money: the creditor was satisfied, and the debt was paid off.

Synonyms: overcompensating, overcharging

Antonyms: underpaying, discounting