Etymograph

English

profitable

Profitable comes from Old French profitable ‘useful’, and goes back to profiter.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400profiter1
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400profitable2‘useful’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1521profitable2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old French profitable
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English profitable
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1521, John Skelton: “I wylbe ferme and ſtabyll And to yow ſeruyceabyll…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400profiterWiktionary, Old French profitable
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400profitableWiktionary, English profitable‘useful’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1521profitableWiktionary, English profitable. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1521, John Skelton: “I wylbe ferme and ſtabyll And to yow ſeruyceabyll…”

Formed from profit + -able

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-

…

Latin prōficiō ‘to advance; to benefit, profit’

Latin prōfectus ‘advance, progress, profit’

Old French profit

Middle English profit

English profit

Every English word from Old French profiter

Today it means

adj Producing a profit.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “profitable”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old French profitable. 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 profiter / profitable

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