Intrinsic means valuable in itself, not for what it leads to. Intrinsic value, intrinsic motivation, intrinsically interesting.
The pairing with extrinsic is the useful part: intrinsic motivation comes from the work itself and extrinsic from rewards outside it, and paying people for something they already enjoy can reduce the first. Note that the Latin means on the inside, from inter plus secus, by the side.
1adjectiveintrinsicValuable in itself, not for what it leads to.
“For her, learning has intrinsic value, whether or not it ever helps her career.”
intrinsic is a quality of being inherent.
Latin intrinsecus means inwardly, from a form of inter, within, plus secus, alongside. Extrinsic is its opposite.
Proto-Indo-European
*sekʷ-
Latin
intrīnsecus — on the inside, inwardly
Middle French
intrinsèque
English, today
intrinsic
Built from
From Middle French intrinsèque, from Latin intrīnsecus (“on the inside, inwardly”), from intrim, an assumed adverbial form of inter (“within”) + secus (“by, on the side”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA