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?