commerce
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: commercé
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑm.ɚs/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒm.əs/, (dated) /kɒˈmɜːs/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (UK) (file)
Noun[edit]
commerce (countable and uncountable, plural commerces)
- (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.
- 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.
- (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Montagu to this entry?)
- An 18th-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[edit]
- trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
- See also Thesaurus:copulation
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
large scale trade
|
|
social interaction
|
|
coitus
Verb[edit]
commerce (third-person singular simple present commerces, present participle commercing, simple past and past participle commerced)
- (intransitive, archaic) To carry on trade; to traffic.
- 1599, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour
- Beware you commerce not with bankrupts.
- 1599, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour
- (intransitive, archaic) To hold intercourse; to commune.
- ?, Alfred Tennyson, Walking to the Mail
- commercing with himself
- (Can we date this quote by Prof. Wilson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Musicians […] taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven.
- ?, Alfred Tennyson, Walking to the Mail
Further reading[edit]
- commerce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- commerce in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle French commerce, borrowed from Latin commercium (“commerce, trade”), from com- (“together”) + merx (“good, wares, merchandise”); see merchant, mercenary.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
commerce m (plural commerces)
Derived terms[edit]
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “commerce” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Business
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for quotation/W. Montagu
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms derived from Middle French
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French countable nouns