entry
pain
/peɪn/Physical or emotional suffering; distress or anguish
From Proto-Indo-European *kwei- (To pay) + O.French pain (Bread).
from PIE *kwei- "to pay, atone, compensate" (see penal ). The early "punishment" sense in English survives in phrase on...
from Latin poena "punishment, penalty, retribution, indemnification" (in Late Latin also "torment, hardship,...
+1 more sourcefrom Old French peine "difficulty, woe, suffering, punishment, Hell's torments" (11c.)
from Old French pain (“bread”).
from Middle English payn (“a kind of pie with a soft crust”)
Word Ancestry
from PIE *kwei- "to pay, atone, compensate" (see penal ). The early "punishment" sense in English survives in phrase on...
from Latin poena "punishment, penalty, retribution, indemnification" (in Late Latin also "torment, hardship,...
+1 more sourcefrom Old French peine "difficulty, woe, suffering, punishment, Hell's torments" (11c.)
from Old French pain (“bread”).
from Middle English payn (“a kind of pie with a soft crust”)
A wound once had a legal price tag. Ancient Greek poinḗ meant a penalty or blood payment—the compensation demanded after someone’s blood had been spilled—and Latin turned it into poena, “punishment.” By the late 1200s, Old French peine could describe everything from a fine to the torments of Hell, and English pain gradually shifted its center of gravity from punishment to bodily and emotional suffering. That old courtroom echo still survives in the phrase “on pain of death.” There is also a linguistic false friend hiding in plain sight: French pain, pronounced roughly “pan,” means bread, and Middle English payn referred to a soft-crusted pie—not agony at all; tomorrow, remember that English pain began as a penalty, while French pain belongs at the bakery.
The Story
A wound once had a legal price tag. Ancient Greek poinḗ meant a penalty or blood payment—the compensation demanded after someone’s blood had been spilled—and Latin turned it into poena, “punishment.” By the late 1200s, Old French peine could describe everything from a fine to the torments of Hell, and English pain gradually shifted its center of gravity from punishment to bodily and emotional suffering. That old courtroom echo still survives in the phrase “on pain of death.” There is also a linguistic false friend hiding in plain sight: French pain, pronounced roughly “pan,” means bread, and Middle English payn referred to a soft-crusted pie—not agony at all; tomorrow, remember that English pain began as a penalty, while French pain belongs at the bakery.
Modern Usage
A painful or unpleasant experience, sometimes expressed through humorous online references
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary examples involving stepping on a Lego and a Bruno Mars lyric
Kin & Kindred
From '*kwei-'·To pay, atone, or compensate
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'pain'·Bread; a separate homonymous word
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary