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Origin and history of profiteer

profiteer(v.)

"to make excessive gains, as by the sale of necessary goods at extortionate prices," 1797, but dormant in English until it was revived early 20c. and popularized in World War I, from profit + -eer. From 1912 as a noun. Related: Profiteering (1814).

Or is it simply hysteria which produces what is to-day termed "the profiteer?" It is probable that the modern profiteer is the same person whom we formerly called "the grafter, the extortioner, the robber, the gouger." [Legal Aid Review, April 1920]

also from 1797

Entries linking to profiteer

profit(n.)

mid-13c., "income derived from an office, property, transaction, etc.;" c. 1300, "benefit, spiritual benefit, advantage;" from Old French prufit, porfit "profit, gain" (mid-12c.), from Latin profectus "growth, advance, increase, success, progress," noun use of past participle of proficere "accomplish, make progress; be useful, do good; have success, profit," from pro "forward" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward") + combining form of facere "to make, do" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put"). An Old English word "gain, profit" was gewinn.

From mid-14c. as "use, usefulness." The specific sense of "the advantage or gain resulting to the owner of capita; from its employment in any undertaking, acquisition beyond expenditure" is from c. 1600. Profit margin "what remains when costs involved are deducted from profit" is attested from 1853. Profit-sharing is by 1881.

As used in political economy, profit means what is left of the product of industry after deducting the wages, the price of raw materials, and the rent paid in the production, and is considered as being composed of three parts — interest, risk or insurance, and wages of superintendence. [Century Dictionary]
-eer

noun word-forming element meaning "one who" (operates, produces, deals in); Englished form of French -ier, from Latin -arius, -iarius; compare -ary. Usually in English words of more recent borrowing from French; older words tend to keep -ier.

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    benefit
    late 14c., benefet, "good or noble deed; helpful or friendly action," also "a beneficial thing; advantage, profit," from Anglo-French benfet (Old French bienfait), from Latin benefactum "good deed," from bene facere, from bene "well" (see bene-) + facere "to do" (from PIE root *d
    gain
    c. 1200, gein, "advantage, benefit; help," c. 1300, "reward, profit, that which has been acquired" (possessions, resources, wealth), from Old French gain, gaaigne "gain, profit, advantage; work, business; booty; arable land" (12c.), from Germanic, and from Old Norse (see gain (v.
    bohemian
    "a gypsy of society; person (especially an artist) who lives a free and somewhat dissipated life, despising conventionalities and having little regard for social standards," 1848, from a transferred sense of French bohemién "a Bohemian; a Gypsy," from the country name (see Bohemi
    James
    masc. proper name, New Testament name of two of Christ's disciples, late 12c. Middle English vernacular form of Late Latin Jacomus (source of Old French James, Spanish Jaime, Italian Giacomo), altered from Latin Jacobus (see Jacob). The Welsh form was Iago, the Cornish Jago. Jame
    college
    late 14c., "organized association of persons invested with certain powers and rights or engaged in some common duty or pursuit," especially "body of scholars and students within an endowed institution of learning," also "resident body of ecclesiastics supported by an endowment,"
    Maranatha
    late 14c., "at the coming of the Lord," a Bible word, from Greek maranatha, a Greek form of an untranslated Aramaic (Semitic) word in I Corinthians xvi.22, where it follows Greek anathema (with which it has no grammatical connection), and therefore has been taken as part of a phr
    costume
    1715, "style of dress," but also more broadly "custom or usage with respect to place and time, as represented in art or literature; distinctive action, appearance, arms, furniture, etc.," from French costume (17c.), from Italian costume "fashion, habit," from Latin consuetudinem
    castor
    late 14c., "a beaver," from Old French castor (13c.), from Latin castor "beaver," from Greek kastor "beaver," perhaps literally "he who excels," and thus identical with the name of one of the divine twins (with Pollux), worshipped by women in ancient Greece as a healer and preser
    coffee
    "drink made from the ground and roasted seeds of a tree originally native to Arabia and Abyssinia," c. 1600, from Dutch koffie, from Turkish kahveh, from Arabic qahwah "coffee," which Arab etymologists connected with a word meaning "wine," but it is perhaps rather from the Kaffa
    fiction
    early 15c., ficcioun, "that which is invented or imagined in the mind," from Old French ficcion "dissimulation, ruse; invention, fabrication" (13c.) and directly from Latin fictionem (nominative fictio) "a fashioning or feigning," noun of action from past participle stem of finge

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