income

Etymology

From Middle English income, perhaps continuing (in altered form) Old English incyme (“an in-coming, entrance”), 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”).

noun

1. Money one earns by working or by capitalising on the work of others.
   In 1970 the richest 1 percent made 9 percent of the nation’s income; now that top slice makes closer to 25 percent. Dec 4 2010, Evan Thomas, “Why It’s Time to Worry”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2013-06-16
   It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries. 2013-06-07, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19
2. (business, commerce) Money coming in to a fund, account, or policy.
3. (obsolete) A coming in; arrival; entrance; introduction.
   more abundant incomes of light and strength from God 1667, George Rust, A Funeral Sermon, preached at the obsequies of […] Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down
4. (archaic or dialectal, Scotland) A newcomer or arrival; an incomer.
5. (obsolete) An entrance-fee.
6. (archaic) A coming in as by influx or inspiration, hence, an inspired quality or characteristic, as courage or zeal; an inflowing principle.
7. (UK dialectal, Scotland) A disease or ailment without known or apparent cause, as distinguished from one induced by accident or contagion; an oncome.
8. That which is taken into the body as food; the ingesta; sometimes restricted to the nutritive, or digestible, portion of the food.