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Subject:Paid/payed -Reply From:Diane Williams <DWILLIAM -at- WALCOFF -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 9 May 1995 12:13:30 -0500
rickl -at- LISP -dot- NET said:
>>I'm curious...have any of you folks noted the use of "paid" starting to
die out in favor of "payed"? If both forms are accepatable, under what
circumstances would you use one or the other?<<
According to my Webster's dictionary, "payed" is only used in the sense
of when a rope is payed out (when you run out of rope). I always thought
the term was "played out," actually; so I learned something new looking it
up! All other uses of "payed" for "paid" would be wrong.
Payed is also used as a transitive verb when you are coating something
with a waterproof substance, says Webster, such as putting pitch (tar) on
a roof. But I never heard that verb used when I worked on construction
specs for the American Institute of Architects, so it may be archaic.
