incentive

From Medieval Latin incentivus (“that strikes up or sets the tune”), from incinere (“to strike up”), from in (“in, on”) + canere (“to sing”). The formation appears to have been influenced by incendere ' to set on fire'.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɛntɪv/
• Rhymes: -ɛntɪv

incentive (plural incentives)

1. Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

   I have no incentive to do housework right now.

2. A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder.

   Management offered the sales team a $500 incentive for each car sold.

• disincentive

• incentivise/incentivize, tax incentive

incentive (comparative more incentive, superlative most incentive)

1. Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulating.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dr. H. More

     Competency is the most incentive to industry.

2. Serving to kindle or set on fire.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Part incentive reed / Provide, pernicious with one touch of fire.

• incentive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• incentive in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Vicentine

incentīve

1. vocative masculine singular of incentīvus

incentive

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of incentivar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of incentivar
3. first-person singular imperative of incentivar
4. third-person singular imperative of incentivar

incentive

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of incentivar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of incentivar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of incentivar.