profitability

Etymology

It is formed from English profitable + -ity,^[2][3] probably first after Middle French profitableté (“usefulness”), recorded in Old French from the 13th century.^[2][3] The adjective profitable is from Anglo-Norman profitable, from profiter (“to profit”),^[2] from the noun profit, from Old French prufit, from Latin prōfectus (“advance, success, progress”), the past participle of prōficiō (“to make progress, be useful”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Usefulness, benefit: the OED's first quotation is from Richard Rolle's Psalter, written about 1340 and copied before 1500,^[2] and Etymonline dates the Middle English profitabilite "usefulness, use" to the mid-14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant usefulness in general, like the adjective profitable, which from about 1300 meant yielding spiritual or moral benefit.^[3] The adjective took on its money-making sense in the 18th century (1758),^[3] and the noun followed: the sense "the quality of being profitable, gainfulness" is recorded by 1890.^[3] The OED defines it as the quality of being profitable and also the capacity to make a profit,^[2][4] and it competes with the older profitableness.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – usefulness, benefit (in a manuscript of before 1500).^[2][3]
• 1890 – the quality of being profitable, gainfulness.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being profitable; the ability to make a profit: Rising costs have hurt the profitability of the bakery.^[5][2][6]
2. (obsolete) Usefulness or benefit.^[3][2]

Related words

• profitable
• profit
• proficient

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House