entrepreneurial

Etymology

It is formed from English entrepreneur + -ial.^[2][3] The noun is from French entrepreneur (“one who undertakes or manages”), an agent noun of Old French entreprendre (“to undertake”),^[3][4][5] the verb behind enterprise.^[3][4] Etymonline notes that Middle English had already borrowed it as entreprenour in the late 15th century, but that this did not last, and that the modern word is a reborrowing.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to an entrepreneur, or enterprising: 1890, in the Co-operative News.^[2][6] The dictionaries disagree on the date: Etymonline gives 1915,^[3] Merriam-Webster 1922,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford the early 20th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective followed the business sense of entrepreneur, a person who owns and manages a business and bears its risks, which the OED records from 1762; the English noun was also used of a manager of concerts and theatres from 1800, and Etymonline dates this theatrical sense to 1828 and the business sense to 1852.^[2][3] The Historical Thesaurus places the adjective among words for business involving speculation.^[6] The noun entrepreneurialism and the adverb entrepreneurially followed in the mid-20th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 1762 – entrepreneur, a person who owns and manages a business.^[2]
• 1890 – relating to entrepreneurs; enterprising.^[2]
• 1915 – first date in Etymonline.^[3]
• 1922 – first date in Merriam-Webster.^[5]
• mid 20th century – entrepreneurialism, entrepreneurially.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to an entrepreneur or entrepreneurs: the entrepreneurial risks of opening a bakery.^[5][2][7]
2. Having the qualities of an entrepreneur; enterprising and willing to take business risks: an entrepreneurial young engineer.^[2][7]

Word family

• nonentrepreneurial

Related words

• entrepreneur
• enterprise
• entrepreneurship

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press