commerce

See also: 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)

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 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: ticarət (az), kommersiya
• Bashkir: сауҙа (sawða), коммерция (kommertsiya)
• 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
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἐμπορία f (emporía)

• Greenlandic: niuerneq
• Hebrew: סַחַר‎‎ m (sakhar), מִסְחָר‎‎ (he) m (miskhar)
• Hindi: व्यापार (hi) m (vyāpār), तिजारत (hi) f (tijārat), वाणिज्य (hi) m (vāṇijya)
• 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) (piənɨc kam), វណិជ្ជា (km) (vĕəʾnɨcciə), ពាណិជ្ជ (km) (piənɨc)
• 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), ວານິດ (wā nit)

• Latvian: komercija f, tirdzniecība 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

• Pali: vaṇijjā
• Pashto: سوداګري‎‎ f (sawdāgarí), تجارت‎‎ (ps) m (teǰārát)
• Persian: تجارت‎‎ (fa) (tejârat)
• Polish: handel (pl) m
• Portuguese: comércio (pt)
• Romanian: comerț (ro) n
• Russian: торго́вля (ru) f (torgóvlja), комме́рция (ru) f (kommércija)
• Sanskrit: वाणिज्य (sa) n (vāṇijya)
• 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 (th) (tú-rá-gìt), การค้า (th) (gaan-káa)
• Turkish: ticaret (tr)
• Turkmen: söwda
• Ukrainian: торгі́вля f (torhívlja), коме́рція (uk) f (komércija)
• Urdu: تجارت‎‎ f (tijārat)
• 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: 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. (intransitive, archaic) To carry on trade; to traffic.
   • Ben Jonson

     Beware you commerce not with bankrupts.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To hold intercourse; to commune.
   • Tennyson

     commercing with himself

   • Prof. Wilson

     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, 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

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mɛʁs/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

Noun

commerce m (plural commerces)

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

Derived terms

• commercial

See also

• négoce

Further reading

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