What is the origin of the phrase "net net"?

Question

I understand that it means something like "the bottom line", but I'm interested in the origin. Is this a business term?

Answer 1

It could be a business term, when you look at the financial statements of a company, there are different sections, the balance sheet, the income statement, and within those you have the "net" income, and net worth of a company.

The net income is income after all expenses, giving you the true net, which generally would come over onto the balance sheet to form the net worth of the company.

It sounds more confusing than it is really, I would recommend taking a business class, or asking someone who you may know that has a business, if they can show you their balance sheets, as you are learning or curious how financial statements are prepared.
(this info is private though, so some may not wish to share).
good luck.

Answer 2

Ah...took forever to figure this out, and I must confess that the other answer provided before mine was pretty compelling. But after searching out examples, I must conclude that it means "the bottom line for both sides of a discussion". Here's one example I found:

So what’s the take-away? Net-net, implementing cliché avoidance 24/7 is a win-win for speakers and listeners alike. If you disagree, let’s take it up off-line, when I’ve got some more bandwidth.

See, net result for both speakers and listeners.

So it's an evolution from the financial term 'net', but modified to reflect an 'all-win', 'all-lose' 'all-whatever' type of situation. And net comes from finance referring to something after all deductions have been removed, meaning 'essence'.

I suspect that some may use net-net to stress their intended use of 'net', but the most frequent usage I found was referring to dual sides of a discussion.

And here's the source of NET:

ADJECTIVE: 1. Business a. Remaining after all deductions have been made, as for expenses: net profit. b. Remaining after tare is deducted: net weight. 2. Ultimate; final: the net result.
NOUN: 1. Business A net amount, as of profit or weight. 2. The main point; the essence: the net of our discussion.
TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: net·ted, net·ting, nets
1. To bring in or yield as profit. 2. To clear as profit.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, elegant, remaining after deductions, from Old French, elegant, and from Old Italian netto, remaining after deductions, both from Latin nitidus, clean, elegant. See neat1.

Answer 3

It's used mainly in Commercial Property rentals. It is the net profit after deducting insurance and other expenses. Sorry my answer is so short..lol