- incentive
- early 15c., from L.L. incentivum, noun use of neut. L. adj. incentivus "setting the tune" (in L.L. "inciting"), from stem of incinere "strike up," from in- "in, into" + canere "sing" (see chant). Sense influenced by association with incendere "to kindle." The adjective use, in reference to a system of rewards meant to encourage harder work, first attested 1943 in jargon of the U.S. war economy; as a noun, in this sense, from 1948.