Definition of income
Etymology
From Middle English, equivalent to in- + come. Cognate with Dutch inkomen (“income, earnings, gainings”), German Einkommen (“income, earnings, competence”), Icelandic innkváma (“income”), Danish indkomst (“income”), Swedish inkomst (“income”).
Pronunciation
Noun
income (plural incomes)
- (obsolete) A coming in; arrival; entrance; introduction.
- (or uncountable) Money one earns by working or capitalising off other people's work.
In 1970 the richest 1 percent made 9 percent of the nation's income; now that top slice makes closer to 25 percent. - Evan Thomas, Why It's Time to Worry, Newsweek 2010-12-04
Further reading
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings received... in a given period of time." For firms, income generally refers to net-profit: what remains of revenue after expenses have been subtracted. In the field of public economics, it may refer to the accumulation of both monetary and non-monetary consumption ability, the former being used as a proxy for total income.
References:
- Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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