Betterment is a rise in a person's condition or standing in life. Social betterment, the betterment of the poor, self-betterment.
It belongs to Victorian language about education and self-improvement, where the betterment of the working man was a whole political programme. In planning law it is the increase in a site's value caused by a public decision.
1nounbettermentA rise in a person's condition or standing in life, such as the lift that schooling gives to the poor.
“She gave her fortune to the betterment of poor children through education.”
betterment is an improvement.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰed-rós
Proto-Germanic
*batizô — better
Proto-West Germanic
*batiʀō
Old English
betera — better
Middle English
better
English
better
English, today
betterment
Built from
From better + -ment. better comes from Middle English better, bettre, betre, from Old English betera (“better”), from Proto-West Germanic batiʀō, from Proto-Germanic batizô (“better”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰed-rós, from bʰed- (“good”). Cognate with Dutch beter, German besser, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål bedre, Norwegian Nynorsk betre, Swedish bättre, Faroese and Icelandic betri. Also Sanskrit भ॒द्र (“blessed; fortunate; happy; good”) (from bʰn̥d-ró-s). Related to best and battle (“getting better; improving; fruitful; fertile”). Compare also Icelandic batna (“to improve”), bót (“improvement”), German besser. More at batten, boot. بهتر.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA