guerdon

Etymology

The word comes from Middle English guerdon, guerdoun, gardone, which developed from Old French guerdon, guerredon, guarredon, werdon. That form goes back to Medieval Latin widerdōnum, an alteration of widerlōnum, from West Germanic (compare Old High German widarlōn and Old English wiþerlēan), literally ‘back-payment’, with its second element reshaped to match Latin dōnum (“gift”).