not-for-profit
Meaning
Not intended to make a financial profit; relating to an organization whose goal is to provide a public benefit rather than to earn money for its owners.
An organization that is not intended to make a financial profit, especially one that is a charity.
Structure
Usage
She works for a large not-for-profit organization dedicated to environmental conservation.
The hospital was reorganized as a not-for-profit to better serve the community.
Donations to registered not-for-profits are often tax-deductible.
Etymology
The term "not-for-profit" is a modern English compound phrase that functions as a single lexical unit. It is constructed from three common English words: the negative adverb "not," the preposition "for," and the noun "profit," which originates from Latin via Old French, carrying the sense of financial advancement. The phrase's logic is transparently descriptive, literally meaning "not for (the purpose of) profit." It emerged in the 20th century as a legal and descriptive category to distinguish organizations whose primary goal is a social mission from commercial enterprises. Its formation follows a straightforward syntactic pattern in English for creating compound modifiers and nouns, directly stating the entity's operational principle.
Analysis
- not: From Old English 'nāt', 'nōt', a contraction of 'ne wāt' ("does not know"). In this compound, it functions as a negative adverb. - for: From Old English 'for', a preposition meaning "on account of, because of, in place of". - profit: From Old French 'prufit', 'profit', from Latin 'profectus' ("progress, advance, profit"), from the verb 'proficere' ("to make progress, be useful"). In this compound, it functions as a noun meaning "financial gain".