Etymology Borrowed from Latin bonus (“good”). Doublet of bona.
1
Something extra that is good; an added benefit.
2
An extra sum given as a premium, e.g. to an employee or to a shareholder.
I was a bank manager in the 1970s, but I never received or expected to receive a bonus for doing my paid work.2009 February 14, “Letters: Time to sack the bonus culture”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Dec 2024:
Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2020, page 70:
1 more example
The employee of the week receives a bonus for his excellent work.
3
Video games An addition to the player's score based on performance, e.g. for time remaining.
Spend the time killing things and there's a bonus for each hit - but only for fatalities notched up since the start of your current life.1988, David Powell, Rygar (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 25
4
Ball games, Basketball, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports One or more free throws awarded to a team when the opposing team has accumulated enough fouls.
Etymology Borrowed from Latin bonus (“good”). Doublet of bona.
1
To pay a bonus, premium
In its adherence to a system of rating which bonusses the most anti-social owners and penalises those doing something to improve the district, the municipality must accept a large measure of responsibility.1949, Land Values Research Group, Reclamation of an Industrial Suburb:
The main bulk of the piece-workers (71%) are bonussed for fulfillment of the production quotas by the section, shop or plant on condition they fulfill the norms.1964, Translations on USSR Labor, United States Joint Publications Research Service, page 22:
1 more example
Extracting grants called bonusses from municipal councils had become a fine art in the hands of railway promoters, and by the 1870s councils were aware that huge municipal debts could be mounted up by bonussing railway lines that as often as not never materialized.1991, Bruce S. Elliott, The City Beyond: A History of Nepean, Birthplace of Canada’s Capital, 1792-1990, Corporation of the City of Nepean, →ISBN, page 130: