Military jargon

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Seems to me that the usual actions designated by "selling" and "buying"
>are here reversed.

In a way. The idea (as I understand it) is that when you sell something
somebody takes it away, i.e., you don't have it any more.

So if you sell (relieve yourself of) an obligation (or debt) then you would
expect to be "paid a negative amount" by the buyer; i.e., you would have to
pay the buyer.

You can describe the same transaction differently; instead of "sell my
duty" you can say "buy the absence of the duty" or "buy my way out of the
duty". But if the item being purchased is defined as "the duty" I guess
whoever gets stuck with it has "bought" it.

-- Doug Wilson