incentive

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Something that encourages you to do something, often a reward or payment.

   The company offered a cash incentive to staff who hit their sales targets.

2. 2
   noun

   A reason or motivation to act.

   Right now I have no incentive to clean the house.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Incentive is related to Latin incantare, “to chant” or “to charm,” from cantare, “to sing,” which also lies behind chant and incantation. It entered English in the Middle Ages with the general sense of something that motivates or encourages action; its use for inducements offered to workers dates from the 1940s.

From Medieval Latin incentīvus (“that strikes up or sets the tune”), from incinō (“to strike up”), from in- (“in, on”) + canō (“to sing”). The formation appears to have been influenced by incendō (“to set on fire”).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary