revenue

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈrev.ən.juː/, US /ˈrev.ə.nuː/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English revenue (“return, revenue”),^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French revenue,^[3][4] from Old French revenue “a return”, the noun use of the feminine past participle of revenir (“to come back”),^[5][3] from Latin revenīre (“to return, come back”),^[5][3] from re- “back” and venīre (“to come”),^[5][3] from Proto-Indo-European *gwa- (“to go, come”).^[5][6] It is related to venue and avenue.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Profit from property or another source of income: 1419 in Barnhart;^[3] the OED's first sense, a return to a place (1422), was rare and is obsolete.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

Its common early sense was the yield from lands and property, what would now be called a return on investment,^[7] recorded from 1427 in the OED^[8] and the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[5] An income, a stipend, is from 1614.^[8] The income of a government, out of which public expenses are met, is from the 1680s in Etymonline,^[5] 1690 in Locke's writings in Barnhart and the OED,^[3][8] and the government department that collects it from 1700.^[3][8] A revenuer, a revenue agent enforcing the laws against illegal distilling, is American, from 1880,^[3][5] and revenue sharing was popularized from 1971, in the Nixon administration.^[5]

Timeline

• 1419 – profit from property.^[3]
• 1614 – an income.^[8]
• 1690 – government income.^[3][8]
• 1700 – the revenue department.^[3][8]
• 1880 – revenuer.^[3][5]
• 1971 – revenue sharing.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The income of a government from taxes and other sources, used for public expenses.
2. Income from property or investment.
3. All the income produced by a particular source, as a company's sales.
4. A government department that collects public revenue.

Word family

• revenued
• nonrevenue
• revenuer
• revenue stamp
• revenue cutter

Related words

• venue
• avenue
• convene
• come

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press