commerce
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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) 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.
- 1648, Walter Montagu Miscellanea Spiritualia, or Devout Essaies
- these perillous commerces of our love
- 1648, Walter Montagu Miscellanea Spiritualia, or Devout Essaies
- An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.[1]
Synonyms[edit]
- trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
- See also Thesaurus:copulation
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
large scale trade
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social interaction
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coitus
term in cards
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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 (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.
- (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[edit]
- ^ a. 1769, Edmond Hoyle, Hoyle's Games
- “commerce” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “commerce” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 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 [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Louisiana Creole French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From French commerce (“commerce”).
Noun[edit]
commerce
References[edit]
- Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales
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
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- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Business
- English terms with quotations
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- 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 countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Louisiana Creole French terms inherited from French
- Louisiana Creole French terms derived from French
- Louisiana Creole French lemmas
- Louisiana Creole French nouns