commerce
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒm.əs/, (verb, dated) /kəˈmɜːs/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑ.mɚs/, (verb, dated) /kəˈmɝs/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒməs, (Received Pronunciation, dated) -ɜːs
Noun
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.
- carnal commerce
- 1648, Walter Montagu, Miscellanea Spiritualia, or Devout Essaies:
- these perillous commerces of our love
- (card games) An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
Synonyms
- trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
- See also Thesaurus:copulation
Derived terms
Translations
large scale trade
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social interaction
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coitus
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term in cards
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Verb
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), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man out of His Humour. A Comicall Satyre. ”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: Will Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (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, 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
- ^ a. 1769, Edmond Hoyle, Hoyle's Games
- “commerce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “commerce”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
French
Etymology
Inherited from Middle French commerce, borrowed from Latin commercium (“commerce, trade”), from com- (“together”) + merx (“good, wares, merchandise”); see merchant, mercenary.
Pronunciation
Noun
commerce m (plural commerces)
Derived terms
See also
Further reading
- “commerce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Louisiana Creole
Etymology
From French commerce (“commerce”).
Noun
commerce
References
- Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales