mercer

See also: Mercer

English

Mercers in Mughal India.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman marcer, mercer (“merchant, textile merchant”), from merz (“commodity”) (from Latin merx).

Pronunciation

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝsɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːsə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)sə(ɹ)

Noun

mercer (plural mercers)

1. A merchant dealing in fabrics and textiles, especially silks and other fine cloths.
   • 1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC:

     ... Acolastus-Polypragmon-Asotus, is here present (by the help of his mercer, tailor, milliner, sempster, and so forth) at his designed hour...

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     He passed, dallying, the windows of Brown Thomas, silk mercers.

Derived terms

• merceress
• mercership

Translations

A merchant in fabrics and textiles

• Catalan: mercer (ca) m, mercera (ca) f
• Finnish: silkkikauppias, kangaskauppias
• French: mercier (fr) m
• German: Händler (de) m, Stoffhändler m, Seidenwarenhändler m

See also

• haberdasher

Anagrams

• Cremer

Catalan

Etymology

Either from Vulgar Latin *merciārius or from Old Catalan merç (“commodity”), both ultimately from Latin merx (“merchandise, goods”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [mərˈse̞]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central) [mərˈse]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [meɾˈseɾ]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [merˈse]

Noun

mercer m (plural mercers, feminine mercera, feminine plural merceres)

1. mercer
2. haberdasher

Derived terms

• merceria

Further reading

• “mercer”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Latin

Verb

mercer

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of mercor