[ronilan]

Maybe I should post in /r/therewasanattempt/ instead :)

To the point:

1. Obviously the meaning of words change over time.

2. If this difference in metaphors has real bearing on how people act than the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, at least in its weak form, stands. That is something worth paying attention to....

[agumonkey]

not that I'm not attacking you, I was curious about the roots of pay

now maybe "pay attention" emerged recently, that is based on the material/financial connotation, or maybe the idiom came before