賃

Phono-semantic compound composed of:

貝 (조개 패) — semantic component, representing money or value.

任 (맡길 임) — phonetic component, indicating the sound and meaning to entrust, to assign responsibility.

Thus, the combined meaning is “to entrust someone with work in exchange for valuables” — essentially “payment entrusted for labor rendered.”

賃金 (임금) — wages, salary

家賃 (가임) — house rent

賃貸 (임대) — lease, rental

賃銀 (임은) — pay, compensation

賃役 (임역) — hired labor, corvée

In early Chinese society, 貝 (shell money) was the symbol of value and exchange.

賃 therefore originated as a record of hired work compensated with shell-money or goods.

The sense of “entrusting a task (任)” and “rewarding with goods (貝)” together yielded the notion of wages or rent.

「賃者，任事取直也。」

“賃 means to receive fair payment for a task entrusted.”

Over time, the word expanded to include: hiring a worker (고용하다), renting land or property (임대하다), or even leasing goods.

賃 represents the balance between responsibility (任) and reward (貝) —

a moral and economic principle that work merits fair payment.

It embodies the idea of labor’s dignity —

that value is created when one’s entrusted task is fulfilled and justly compensated.

「任勞得賃。」

“He who bears labor earns his wage.”

Thus, 賃 symbolizes the ethical foundation of work and reward,

where trust, duty, and fairness are exchanged — not merely goods.