Work and profession

A working day in two registers. In the middle sits la prime, and one French spelling is standing on two unrelated Latin words. Praemium, a reward, gives every payment: une prime de fin d’année, the December bonus, la prime d’assurance, the insurance premium, and une prime à l’achat, a government grant. Primus, first, gives the other prime, which is an adjective and survives only in fixed phrases — de prime abord, at first sight, and la prime jeunesse, earliest youth. English never let the two meet: it took « premium » from the first and « prime » from the second, and « a prime » is not a payment at all. So the word that looks identical is the one that cannot be used here, and the French payment on a payslip is an English premium.