profit

Forms

profit n (plural profituri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French profit, and the dictionaries also name German Profit and Italian profitto as models, a case of multiple etymology.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The French word comes by regular sound change from Latin prōfectus (“advance, progress; success”), from prōficiō (“to make progress, be useful”), formed with prō- on faciō (“to do, make”).^[7] The Italian word is itself a borrowing from French.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is I. Golescu's manuscript Condica limbii rumânești of about 1832.^[3] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) explains it with the native words for gain and benefit, câștig and folos.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is general: a gain or benefit, material or spiritual, as in a trage profit “to take advantage”.^[4][2] The 19th-century dictionaries gloss it with folos, câștig and avantaj.^[10][9] The economic sense, the income that capital brings to its owners or the gain of an enterprise, became a technical term of the 20th century.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – first record, in Golescu's Condica.^[3]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1870 – Costinescu: gain, benefit, advantage.^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it German Gewinn “gain”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A benefit, material or spiritual; gain, advantage;^{[2][3][12][1]} în profitul cuiva “for someone's benefit”.^{[2][3][12][1]}
2. (economics) The income from the capital invested in a business; the profit of an enterprise.^[2][3]

Related words

• profita

Usage notes

The colloquial un ce profit means “some advantage or other”.^[3][12] A regional variant profet is recorded, and old texts also have a masculine profit, a variant of profet “prophet” and a separate word.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 882
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 562
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. profit
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. profit
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. profit
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. profitto
9. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. profit
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 366
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 510
12. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 593