English
enterprise
Enterprise comes, via Middle English, from Middle French entreprise, the feminine past participle of Old French entreprendre ‘to undertake’.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400entreprendre‘to undertake’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600entreprise
- Englishearliest quotation 1590enterprise
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400entreprendre‘to undertake’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600entreprise
- Englishearliest quotation 1590enterprise
Earliest quotation: 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’
Linked words
through Middle French entreprendre ‘to undertake’
Today it means
noun A company, business, organization, or other purposeful endeavor.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French entreprendre / enterprise