If you’re feeling adventurous, and want to devise some exciting new verbs using your word roots, make sure that your new creation doesn’t have a wholly different meaning! Continuing in our theme of idiotismoj, today we’ll examine the verb “subacxeti.”

When you think of “underpay” in English, you think of giving someone too little payment for a good or service. So, if you start with the Esperanto verb “acxeti,” which means “to buy,” and add the prefix for “under,” which is “sub,” you end up with “subacxeti.” However, this verb is already an idiomatic expression! It means “to bribe.” Of course, that’s way off the mark from what you were seeking!

I recommend differentiating between the verbs “pagi” and “acxeti.” When you pay for a service, you use “pagi.” For example, you pay someone for fixing your car. If you buy something, you’re exchanging money for a tangible good. So, you use “acxeti” for when you’re buying a new jacket.

With this as the case, we should start with “pagi” if we want to create “to underpay.” Instead of the spatial-oriented “sub,” we should use “multa,” meaning many, and the opposite-inducing “mal.” Then, we have “malmultpagi,” which is probably much closer to our target word.