I am very happy about this discovery.
While trying to offer a definition for ‘net’ as in net revenue or ‘net’ as in net profit for one of my grandchildren, I looked up the etymology of the word ‘net’. It clearly comes from the Latin 'nitere' meaning to shine, look bright, glitter. It is the same root as the word 'neat'.
Horray! Net is a beautiful word. All intelligent people should worship it. All our modern world is built upon its elegance.
This latin word parallels one of my favorite words in Japanese: ‘kiriei’ which means both good-looking, beautiful and clean.
In both cases the parallel word contains much of the same meaning.
In commerce, 'net' is a word that refers to expenses being removed from revenue to give one an important number that shows the elegant, glittering, surplus available for replacement, growth and expansion.
In real beauty, unlike the world of vikings* and hippies, clean is beautiful and dirty is smelly, unappealing and evidence of sloth.
To me it is wonderful that one of the most important words in commerce is associated with neatness, brightness and that conception has delivered to us the entire world of hope, health and vitality that are at the core of commerce.
*(Be sure to look at Brian's comment below about Viking cleanliness and my blog on 12-13.)