Etymograph

English

enterprise

Enterprise comes, via Middle English, from Middle French entreprise, the feminine past participle of Old French entreprendre ‘to undertake’.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400entreprendre1‘to undertake’
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600entreprise1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1590enterprise1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English enterprise
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto II: “Him at the threshold met, and well did enterprize.”.

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400entreprendreWiktionary, English enterprise‘to undertake’
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600entrepriseWiktionary, English enterprise
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1590enterpriseWiktionary, English enterprise. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto II: “Him at the threshold met, and well did enterprize.”

A compound of entre ‘in between’ + prendre ‘to take’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér ‘between’

Proto-Italic *n̥ter ‘between’

Latin inter ‘between, among’

Old French entre ‘between’

Middle French entre ‘in between’

Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- ‘to find’

Proto-Indo-European *gʰnédti

Proto-Italic *hendō ‘to hold’

Proto-Italic *praiɣendō

Latin prehendō ‘to lay hold of, seize, grasp, grab, snatch, take, catch’

Latin prēndō

Old French prendre

Middle French prendre ‘to take’

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with enterprise, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Middle French entreprendre ‘to undertake’

Explore everything descended from entreprendre →

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Today it means

noun A company, business, organization, or other purposeful endeavor.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “enterprise”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Old French entreprendre / enterprise