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Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship pp 580–584Cite as

Entrepreneur: Etymological Bases

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Business; Entrepreneur; Entrepreneur, Theory

The study of the etymology of words is a fruitful way to understand the history of social practices, as a reflection of social behavior. Words stem from social practices that change in dynamic interactive processes. Our objective is to present some examples of the etymology of the word “entrepreneur” in French and English. Since a long time ago, French and English people use the same word: “entrepreneur.” The historical roots of the word “entrepreneur” as well as of the verb entreprendre go back to the war vocabulary.

Surrounding a town is indeed compared to an entrepreneurial activity since it is an act that combines strategy, organization, and risk. More recently, the words “entrepreneur” and entreprendrehave worn an economic meaning. Thus, the entrepreneur is a person who concludes a contract with a government or a public authority as a goods supplier or to undertake – for its account – infrastructural investments (such as...

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Acknowledgments

Authors want to express their sincere thanks to Guillem Achermann, Zeting Liu, and Nejla Yacoub for their precious help in the preparation of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit on Industry and Innovation/CLERSE–CNRS (UMR 8019), University of Lille Nord de France, Research Network on Innovation, 1 Place de l'Yser, BP 1022, 59375, Dunkerque, France

    Prof. Sophie Boutillier & Prof. Dimitri Uzunidis

  2. Research Unit on Industry and Innovation, University of Littoral Côte d’Opale, 39, rue Gaspard NEUTS, 59240, Dunkerque, France

    Prof. Sophie Boutillier

  3. Political Economy, Research Unit on Industry and Innovation University, University of Littoral Côte d’Opale, 39, rue Gaspard NEUTS, 59240, Dunkerque, France

    Prof. Dimitri Uzunidis

Authors
  1. Prof. Sophie Boutillier
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  2. Prof. Dimitri Uzunidis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sophie Boutillier .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems & Technology, Management, School of Business, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Elias G. Carayannis

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Boutillier, S., Uzunidis, D. (2013). Entrepreneur: Etymological Bases. In: Carayannis, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_465

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