commerce

See also: commercé

English

Wikipedia Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.mɝs/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒ.mɜs/ (Formerly accented on the second syllable.)

• Audio (US)

  (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.
   • Macaulay:

     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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Montagu to this entry?)

4. A 19th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hoyle to this entry?)

Synonyms

• trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
• See also Wikisaurus:sexual intercourse

Derived terms

• chamber of commerce
• commercial

Translations

large scale trade

• Afrikaans: handel, ruil
• Albanian: tregti (sq) f
• Arabic: تِجَارَة f ‎(tijāra)
• Armenian: առեւտուր ‎(aṙewtur)
• Asturian: comerciu m
• Azeri: ticarət (az), kommersiya
• Belarusian: га́ндаль m ‎(hándalʹ), каме́рцыя f ‎(kamjércyja)
• Bengali: বাণিজ্য (bn) ‎(baniyô)
• Bulgarian: търго́вия (bg) f ‎(tǎrgóvija)
• Burmese: အရောင်းအဝယ် (my) ‎(a.raung:a.wai)
• 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
• Hebrew: סַחַר m ‎(sakhar), מִסְחָר (he) m ‎(miskhar)
• Hindi: व्यापार (hi) m ‎(vyāpār), तिजारत (hi) f ‎(tijārat)
• Icelandic: verslun (is) f
• Indonesian: perdagangan (id)
• Irish: thráchtáil
• 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) ‎(pienɨccea’kam), វណិជ្ជា (km) ‎(vea’niccie)
• Korean: 무역 (ko) ‎(muyeok) (貿易 (ko)), 교역 (ko) ‎(gyoyeok) (交易 (ko)), 상업 (ko) ‎(sang-eop) (商業 (ko))

• Kyrgyz: соода (ky) ‎(sooda), коммерция ‎(kommertsiya)
• Lao: ການຄ້າ (lo) ‎(kān khā), ທຸລະກິດ (lo) ‎(thu la kit)
• Latvian: komercija f, tirdzniecība (lv) f
• Lithuanian: komercija f, prekyba (lt) f
• Macedonian: трго́вија f ‎(trgóvija), коме́рција f ‎(komércija)
• Malay: perdagangan
• Maltese: kummerċ
• Manx: cochionneeaght f
• Maori: tauhokohoko
• Mongolian: худалдаа (mn) ‎(hudaldaa)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: handel (no) m

• Persian: تجارت (fa) ‎(tejârat)
• Polish: handel (pl) m
• Portuguese: comércio (pt)
• Romanian: comerț (ro) n
• Russian: торго́вля (ru) f ‎(torgóvlja), комме́рция (ru) f ‎(kommércija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трговина f, обход m

  Roman: trgovina (sh) f, obhod m

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

social interaction

• Bulgarian: общуване (bg) n ‎(obštuvane)
• Catalan: comerç (ca) m

• Finnish: vuorovaikutus (fi), sosiaalinen kanssakäyminen
• Russian: обще́ние (ru) n ‎(obščénije)

coitus

• Bulgarian: сноше́ние (bg) n ‎(snošénie)
• French: rapports (fr) m pl

• Russian: сноше́ние (ru) n ‎(snošénije)

term in cards

• Bulgarian: наддаване n ‎(naddavane)

• Catalan: comerç (ca) m

Verb

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

1. (dated) To carry on trade; to traffic.

   Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. -B. Jonson.

2. (dated) To hold intercourse; to commune.

   Commercing with himself. -Tennyson.

   Musicians ... taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven. -Prof. Wilson.

External links

• commerce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• commerce in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 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

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

Noun

commerce m ‎(plural commerces)

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

Derived terms

• commercial

See also

• négoce

External links

• “commerce” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).