Richard Cantillon (circa 1730); Entrepreneurship is defined as self-employment of any sort. Entrepreneurs buy at certain prices in the present and sell at uncertain prices in the future. The entrepreneur is a bearer of uncertainty.

Jean Baptiste Say (1816); The entrepreneur is the agent “who unites all means of production and who finds in the value of the products…the reestablishment of the entire capital he employs, and the value of the wages, the interest, and rent which he pays, as well as profits belonging to himself.”

Frank Knight (1921); Entrepreneurs attempt to predict and act upon change within markets. Knight emphasize the entrepreneur’s role in bearing the uncertainty of market dynamics. Entrepreneurs are required to perform such fundamental managerial functions as direction and control.

–noun 1. a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

2. an employer of productive labor; contractor.

–verb (used with object) 3. to deal with or initiate as an entrepreneur.

–verb (used without object) 4. to act as an entrepreneur.

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[Origin: 1875–80; < F: lit., one who undertakes (some task), equiv. to entrepren(dre) to undertake (< L inter- inter- + prendere to take, var. of prehendere) + -eur -eur. See enterprise] —Related forms en·tre·pre·neur·i·al, adjective en·tre·pre·neur·i·al·ly, adverb en·tre·pre·neur·i·al·ism, en·tre·pre·neur·ism, noun en·tre·pre·neur·ship, noun (i.e. the act of being an entrepreneur)