Our word ‘Profit’ comes from a Latin verb proficere.
It’s meanings include:
to advance, make progress
to benefit, profit, take advantage
to help contribute, be useful
to depart, set out
Proficere itself is a combination of two words, ‘pro’ (meaning forwards) and ‘ficere’ which means:
to do
to make, construct, fashion, frame, build, erect
to produce, compose
to appoint
Ultimately this can be traced right back to proto-Sanskrit as a word that means ‘do, put, place’ – a word that represents our sense of agency in the world.
Why do we insist on reducing all this richness to mere coin?
