profit

Forms

profit m (plural profits)^[1] Old French prufit, profiet, pourfit and proufit.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman also wrote it profet and proffit.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French profit, inherited from Latin prōfectus (“advance, progress, success”).^[2][1][6] The Latin noun comes from prōficiō (“to advance, make progress, be useful”), formed from prō- (“forward”) and faciō (“to do, make”).^[7][8] The usual Old French form was pourfit, which was remade as proufit and then as the present form after the Latin word.^[2][4]

Cognate with Italian profitto, Old Occitan profech, Spanish provecho and Portuguese proveito; the Italian word was itself taken from French.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as prufit in the Cambridge Psalter, in the first half of the 12th century, meaning “advantage, benefit”.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense of advantage, the word came to mean an intellectual or moral benefit in the 13th century,^[2][7] and it entered set phrases still in use: au profit de (1316), tourner à son profit (1606) and mettre à profit (1640).^[2][7]

The material sense of income or monetary gain is recorded from about 1155 and spread in common use between the 14th and 16th centuries.^[7] In the plural, profits were the small tips given to servants (1617), a sense that faded in the 19th century.^[2][7] Bookkeeping gave profits et pertes (1832), whence passer par profits et pertes “to write off as lost”.^[2][7] In political economy the word came to mean the return of an economic activity beyond the wages of labour and the cost of capital, a use dated 1887 by Rey and 1926 by the TLFi.^[7][2]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Prufit “advantage” appears in the Cambridge Psalter.^[2][7]
• 1160–1174 – Wace uses profiet for income or monetary gain.^[2]
• 13th century – The sense “intellectual or moral benefit” is recorded.^[2][7]
• 1316 – First record of au profit de.^[2][7]
• 1606 – Nicot records tourner à son profit.^[2]
• 1617 – The plural is used for servants' tips.^[2]
• 1640 – Oudin records mettre tout à profit.^[2]
• 1832 – Profits et pertes is recorded in accounting.^[2]
• 1926 – The term of political economy appears in a work by Perroux.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An advantage or benefit, material, intellectual or moral, drawn from something: tirer profit de ses lectures.^[2][11]
2. Au profit de: for the benefit of, in favour of: une vente au profit des sinistrés.^[2][11]
3. Mettre à profit: to make good use of: mettre à profit ses vacances.^[2][7]
4. A financial gain, income: un profit net, un profit brut.^[2][11]
5. (economics) The surplus earned by an enterprise beyond its costs.^[2][7]
6. Profits et pertes: gains and losses in accounts, whence passer par profits et pertes, to write off.^[2][7]

Word family

• profiter
• profitable
• profiteur

Related words

• Latin prōfectus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 427a
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert