emolument

英文词源

emolument

emolument: [15] Just as a salary was originally a ‘payment for salt’, so emolument appears to have been a particular kind of payment – in this case for flour – which later became generalized in meaning. Latin ēmolere meant ‘grind out’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and molere ‘grind’, a relative of English mill and meal ‘ground grain’), and hence the derivative ēmolumentum was used originally for ‘fee paid to a miller for grinding grain’. The metaphorical sense ‘gain’ was already present in classical Latin.
=> meal, mill

emolument (n.)

mid-15c., from Old French émolument "advantage, gain, benefit; income, revenue" (13c.) and directly from Latin emolumentum "profit, gain, advantage, benefit," perhaps originally "payment to a miller for grinding corn," from emolere "grind out," from assimilated form of ex- "out" (see ex-) + molere "to grind" (see mallet).