Unprofitableness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A state in which an activity or investment fails to produce financial rewards or advantages
2. The condition in which an enterprise or venture does not yield monetary benefits
3. A situation characterized by the failure to generate profits or economic returns

Etymology: Unprofitableness is a plain English compound: the adjective "unprofitable" (not profitable, producing no gain) with the suffix "-ness", which turns an adjective into a noun naming a quality or state. English has used "-ness" this way since Old English, attaching it freely to native and borrowed adjectives, so the noun needs no special history of its own. Its meaning follows directly from its parts: the condition of being unprofitable, whether that describes a venture that loses money, a business that never pays off, or an investment that returns nothing. The root "profitable" is the more interesting part of the chain. "Profit" came into English through Old French from Latin "profectus", meaning progress or advance, and it originally sensed benefit or improvement in general rather than money specifically. The narrowing to financial gain came later, which is why "unprofitable" can describe something that was useless or wasteful in any sense, not only commercially.

Synonyms: ineffectiveness, futility

Antonyms: profitability, benefit