bettership

English

Etymology

From better +‎ -ship. Compare West Frisian betterskip.

Noun

bettership (uncountable)

1. betterment; improvement
   • 1818, Sherwin's Political Register - Volume 3 - Page 395:

     […] to all kinds of labour and servitude, where after experiencing degradation, contempt, and stinted allowance of food, which the unnatural spirit of aristocratic bettership engenders, they often exchange a bad state for a worse, from oppression to prostitution, […]

   • 1888, Richard Mulcaster, Robert Hebert Quick, Positions - Page 186:

     Wherby it becomes the puffer vp to pride in the recluse, and the direction to disdaine, by dreaming still of bettership: […]

   • 1922, The Friend, volume 95, page 591:

     Time properly brings changes, but to those of us who have shared the spiritual responsibilities of such a Committee, its experiences have contributed conspicuously of bettership in our lives.

Synonyms

• betterhood