profit - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English profit, from Old French profit (Modern French profit), from Latin prōfectus (“advance, progress, growth, increase, profit”), from proficiō (“to go forward, advance, make progress, be profitable or useful”). Doublet of profect.

profit (countable and uncountable, plural profits)

  1. (accounting, economics) Total income or cash flow minus expenditures. The money or other benefit a non-governmental organization or individual receives in exchange for products and services sold at an advertised price.
    • 1750 Oct. 2, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler:
      Let no man anticipate uncertain profits.
    • 1935, Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, page 1 & 7:
      War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives... Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket—and are safely pocketed.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 27 October 2020, page 68:
      The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.
    • 2023 October 13, Daniel Appleford, “Fans support MLG being brought back under Microsoft acquisition”, in Dexerto‎[2]:
      After the pandemic, MLG lost a lot of its viewership and profits which led it to close. The MLG Twitter account is no longer active and the mlg.com website directs to Battlenet instead of its old website.
  2. (dated, literary) Benefit, positive result obtained.
    Reading such an enlightening book on the subject was of much profit to his studies.
  3. (property law) Ellipsis of profit à prendre.

Regarding the income sense, when the difference is negative, the term loss is preferred. Negative profit does appear in microeconomics. Profit by a government agency is called a surplus.

benefit

total income or cash flow minus expenditures

profit (third-person singular simple present profits, present participle profiting, simple past and past participle profited)

  1. (transitive) To benefit (somebody), be of use to (somebody).
    • 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
      It is a great means of profiting yourself, to copy diligently those excellent pieces and beautiful designs.
  2. (intransitive, construed with from) To benefit, gain.
  3. (intransitive, construed with from) To take advantage of, exploit, use.

To benefit, be of use to — see also benefit

To benefit, gain — see also benefit

To take advantage of, exploit, use — see also exploit

From Latin prōfectus.

profit m (plural profits)

  1. benefit, advantage

Inherited from Old French profit, from Latin prōfectus.

profit m (plural profits)

  1. profit, benefit
    Il a su tirer profit de ses connaissances.
    He managed to take advantage of his knowledge.

Borrowed from German Profit.[1]

profit (plural profitok)

  1. profit (total income or cash flow minus expenditures)
    Synonyms: haszon, nyereség

  2. ^ profit in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN. (See also its 2nd edition.)

Borrowed from Dutch profijt (“profit”), from Middle Dutch profijt, from Old French profit, from Latin profectus.

profit (plural **profit-profit)

  1. profit
    1. benefit
      Synonyms: manfaat, untung
    2. (accounting) total income or cash flow minus expenditures
  2. advantage
    Synonym: keuntungan

From Old French profit, from Latin profectus (“advance, progress, growth, increase, profit”).

profit m (plural profits)

  1. (Jersey) profit

Borrowed from French profit.[1][2]

profit m inan

  1. (literary, accounting, economics) profit (money acquired)
    Synonyms: dochód, przychód
  2. (literary) profit (benefit, positive result obtained)
    Synonyms: korzyść, pożytek, zysk
  1. ^ Mirosław Bańko; Lidia Wiśniakowska (2021), “profit”, in Wielki słownik wyrazów obcych, →ISBN
  2. ^ Witold Doroszewski, editor (1958–1969), “profit”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), Warszawa: PWN

Borrowed from French profit.

profit n (plural profituri)

  1. profit

pròfīt m inan (Cyrillic spelling про̀фӣт)

  1. profit

From Old Swedish profit, from French profit, from Latin prōficere. Attested since 1487.

profit c

  1. (derogatory) profit, unearned income

From English profit.

profit

  1. profit
  2. interest