Prepaying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To arrange for payment to be made beforehand for products or services
2. Making a payment before it is due for goods or services
3. Settling a bill or debt prior to the scheduled time

Etymology: The verb "prepay" is simply "pre-" attached to "pay," and the interesting part is how "pay" got here. It descends from Latin "pācāre," meaning "to pacify" or "to make peace," from "pax," "peace." The Old French "paier" carried that sense of settling a dispute or satisfying a creditor, which is why a payment originally meant calming someone who was owed something. Middle English took it as "payen," and the peacemaking idea survives only in the notion of satisfying a debt. "Pre-" is the Latin prefix meaning "before," which entered English through Middle English as a productive element. Joining it to "pay" creates a transparent compound: to pay in advance of the moment a bill or obligation falls due. The sense is straightforward, so the word's meaning comes almost entirely from its two parts.

Synonyms: advance payment, pay in advance