Prē'mi-ŭm, n.

n.; pl. PRĒ'MI-ŬMS. [Lat. præmium, originally what one has before or better than others, from præ, before.]

1. A reward or recompense; a prize to be won by competition; reward or prize to be adjudged; a bounty; as, a premium for good behavior or scholarship, for discoveries, and the like. “So as to think it not the necessity, but the premium and privilege of life, to eat and sleep without any regard to glory.” Burke.
2. Something offered or given for the loan of money; sometimes synonymous with interest, but generally signifying a sum in advance of the capital, or sum lent.

People were tempted to lend by great premiums and large interest, and it concerned them to preserve that government which they had trusted with their money. Swift. 3. A sum of money paid to underwriters for insurance, or for undertaking to indemnify for losses of any kind.