commerce

See also: Commerce and commercé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑm.ɚs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.əs/, (dated) /kɒˈmɜːs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

commerce (countable and uncountable, plural commerces)

1. (business) The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
2. Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.
   • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:

     Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     Suppose we held our converse not in words, but in music; those who have a bad ear would find themselves cut off from all near commerce, and no better than foreigners in this big world.

3. (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
   • 1648, Walter Montagu Miscellanea Spiritualia, or Devout Essaies

     these perillous commerces of our love

4. An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.

Synonyms

• trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
• See also Thesaurus:copulation

Derived terms

• chamber of commerce
• commercial

Translations

large scale trade

• Afrikaans: handel (af), ruil
• Albanian: tregti (sq) f
• Amharic: ንግድ ? (nəgd)
• Arabic: تِجَارَة‎ f (tijāra)
• Armenian: առեւտուր (aṙewtur)
• Asturian: comerciu m
• Azerbaijani: alver (az), ticarət (az)
• Bashkir: сауҙа (sawða), коммерция (kommertsiya)
• Belarusian: га́ндаль (be) m (hándalʹ), каме́рцыя f (kamjércyja), тарго́ўля f (tarhóŭlja)
• Bengali: বাণিজ্য (bn) (banijjô), তেজারত (tejarôt)
• Bulgarian: търго́вия (bg) f (tǎrgóvija)
• Burmese: အရောင်းအဝယ် (my) (a.raung:a.wai), ဝါဏိဇ္ဇ (my) (wanijja.), ကုန်သွယ်ရေး (my) (kunswaire:)
• Catalan: comerç (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 貿易 (zh), 贸易 (zh) (màoyì), 交易 (zh) (jiāoyì), 商業 (zh), 商业 (zh) (shāngyè)

• Czech: obchod (cs) m
• Danish: handel (da) c
• Dutch: handel (nl) m, commercie (nl) f
• Esperanto: komerco
• Estonian: kaubandus
• Finnish: kauppa (fi), kaupankäynti (fi)
• French: commerce (fr) m
• Friulian: cumierç m
• Galician: comercio (gl) m
• Georgian: კომერცია (ka) (ḳomercia), ვაჭრობა (vač̣roba)
• German: Handel (de) m, Kommerz f
• Greek: εμπόριο (el) n (empório)

  Ancient: ἐμπορία f (emporía)

• Greenlandic: niuerneq
• Hebrew: סַחַר‎ (he) m (sakhar), מִסְחָר‎ (he) m (miskhar)
• Hindi: व्यापार (hi) m (vyāpār), तिजारत (hi) f (tijārat), वाणिज्य (hi) m (vāṇijya), सौदा (hi) m (saudā)
• Hungarian: kereskedelem (hu)
• Icelandic: verslun (is) f
• Indonesian: perdagangan (id)
• Irish: tráchtáil f
• Italian: commercio (it) m
• Japanese: 貿易 (ja) (ぼうえき, bōeki), 交易 (ja) (こうえき, kōeki), 商業 (ja) (しょうぎょう, shōgyō)
• Kazakh: коммерция (kommercïya), сауда (sawda)
• Khmer: ពាណិជ្ជកម្ម (km) (piənɨccĕəʼkam), វណិជ្ជា (km) (vĕəʼnɨcciə), ពាណិជ្ជ (km) (piənɨc)
• Korean: 무역(貿易) (ko) (muyeok), 교역(交易) (ko) (gyoyeok), 상업(商業) (ko) (sang'eop)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sewda (ku)

• Kyrgyz: соода (ky) (sooda), коммерция (qommertsiya)
• Lao: ການຄ້າ (lo) (kān khā), ທຸລະກິດ (lo) (thu la kit), ວານິດ (wā nit)
• Latin: commercium n
• Latvian: komercija f, tirdzniecība f
• Lithuanian: komercija f, prekyba (lt) f
• Macedonian: трговија f (trgovija), комерција f (komercija)
• Malay: perdagangan (ms)
• Malayalam: വാണിജ്യം (vāṇijyaṃ), വ്യാപാരം (ml) (vyāpāraṃ)
• Maltese: kummerċ m
• Manx: cochionneeaght f
• Maori: tauhokohoko
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: худалдаа (mn) (khudaldaa)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: handel (no) m

  Nynorsk: handel m

• Pali: vaṇijjā
• Pashto: سوداګري‎ f (sawdāgarí), تجارت‎ (ps) m (teǰārát)
• Persian: تجارت‎ (fa) (tejârat), سودا‎ (fa) (sowdâ)
• Polish: handel (pl) m
• Portuguese: comércio (pt) m
• Romanian: comerț (ro) n
• Russian: торго́вля (ru) f (torgóvlja), комме́рция (ru) f (kommércija)
• Sanskrit: वाणिज्य (sa) n (vāṇijya)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трго̀вина f

  Roman: trgòvina (sh) f

• Sicilian: cummerciu (scn) m
• Slovak: obchod m
• Slovene: trgovina (sl) f
• Spanish: comercio (es) m
• Swahili: biashara (sw) 9/10
• Swedish: handel (sv) c
• Tagalog: kalakalan, pangangalakal
• Tajik: тиҷорат (tijorat), савдо (savdo)
• Tatar: сәүдә (tt) (säüdä)
• Thai: พาณิชย์ (paa-nít), ธุรกิจ (th) (tú-rá-gìt), การค้า (th) (gaan-káa)
• Tocharian B: karyor n
• Turkish: ticaret (tr)
• Turkmen: söwda
• Ukrainian: торгі́вля f (torhívlja), коме́рція (uk) f (komércija)
• Urdu: تجارت‎ f (tijārat), سودا‎ m (saudā)
• Uyghur: تىجارەت‎ (tijaret), سودا‎ (soda)
• Uzbek: tijorat (uz), kommersiya (uz), savdo (uz)
• Vietnamese: sự buôn bán (vi), thương mại (vi), thương nghiệp (vi)
• Yiddish: האַנדל‎ m (handl)

social interaction

• Bulgarian: общу́ване (bg) n (obštúvane)
• Catalan: comerç (ca) m
• Finnish: vuorovaikutus (fi), sosiaalinen kanssakäyminen

• Georgian: ურთიერთობა (urtiertoba)
• Hungarian: érintkezés (hu)
• Russian: обще́ние (ru) n (obščénije)

coitus

• Bulgarian: сноше́ние (bg) n (snošénie)
• Finnish: yhdyntä (fi), seksuaalinen kanssakäyminen
• French: rapports (fr) m pl

• Russian: сноше́ние (ru) n (snošénije)

term in cards

• Bulgarian: надда́ване n (naddávane)

• Catalan: comerç (ca) m

Verb

commerce (third-person singular simple present commerces, present participle commercing, simple past and past participle commerced)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To carry on trade; to traffic.
   • 1599 (first performance; published 1600)​, Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man out of His Humour. A Comicall Satyre. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, OCLC 960101342, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Beware you commerce not with bankrupts.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To hold conversation; to communicate.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Walking to the Mail”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 1008064829, page 48:

     No, sir, he, / Vex'd with a morbid devil in his blood / That veil'd the world with jaundice, hid his face / From all men, and commercing with himself, / He lost the sense that handles daily life— […]

   • 1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:

     Musicians […] taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven.

Further reading

• “commerce” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “commerce” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

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French

Etymology

From Middle French commerce, borrowed from Latin commercium (“commerce, trade”), from com- (“together”) + merx (“good, wares, merchandise”); see merchant, mercenary.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mɛʁs/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

Noun

commerce m (plural commerces)

1. commerce, trade
2. store, shop, trader

Derived terms

• commerce équitable
• commercial
• café du commerce
• fonds de commerce

See also

• négoce

Further reading

• “commerce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French commerce (“commerce”).

Noun

commerce

1. business, commerce

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales