revenu

Old French revenir combined re (back, again) with venir (to come), from Latin venire. A revenu was a return — literally, something that came back to you. Medieval French used the word for income from land: the rents and yields that returned annually to a lord from his estates. The word described the cyclical nature of agricultural income, money that came around each season like the harvest.

English borrowed the word in the 15th century. Revenue initially meant income from property — the annual returns that flowed back to a landowner from tenants and rents. The word suited the feudal economy perfectly: it described the rhythm of income, the regular return of value from an investment of land.

Government revenue entered the vocabulary as states grew more complex. By the 17th century English governments spoke of revenue as the income of the crown — taxes, duties, and customs that returned to the sovereign from the realm. The Board of Revenue, the Revenue Service, the Internal Revenue Service: all describe the state's machinery for collecting what it is owed.

Modern business uses revenue to mean total income before expenses — the top line of a financial statement. The cyclical, returning character of the word has faded. But the root persists: revenue is still what comes back, what returns from your investment of labor or capital. Every sale is a coming-back of something once spent.