The story
- Latin · derived frommercēnārius“hired for money”
- Middle English · inherited frommercenarye“someone paid to work, hireling”
- English todaymercenary
From Middle English mercenarye (“someone paid to work, hireling”), from Latin mercēnārius (“hired for money”), from mercēs (“reward, wages, price”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.