incentive

What it means

1. Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.

   I have no incentive to do housework right now.

   1 more example

   It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

   2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36

   Synonyms: carrot

2. A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder.

   Management offered the sales team a $500 incentive for each car sold.

In a sentence

I have no incentive to do housework right now.

Where it comes from

1. Medieval Latinincentīvus“that strikes up or sets the tune”
2. Englishincentive

From Medieval Latin incentīvus (“that strikes up or sets the tune”), from incinō (“to strike up”), from in- (“in, on”) + canō (“to sing”) + -ive. The formation appears to have been influenced by incendō (“to set on fire”).