Premium

(pre'me-um.) [FromL. præmium.] Properly, a reward or recompense; but it is chiefly used in a mercantile sense for the sum of money given to an insurer, whether of ships, houses, lives, . Also, the money paid by a purchaser in exce of the prime cost of an article, a share in a public company, . Also, the recompense or prize offered for a specific discovery, or for succe in an enterprise. [s. 729]