commerce

See also: Commerce and commercé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium. Doublet of comess. Displaced native Old English mangung.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒ.mɜːs/, (verb, dated) /kəˈmɜːs/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.mɚs/, (verb, dated) /kəˈmɝs/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.ɚs/
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔm.əs/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.əs/, [kɔ̟m.əs]
• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒməs, (Received Pronunciation, dated) -ɜːs

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.
   • 1648, Walter Montagu, “The Thirteenth Treatise. Handling whether to be in Love, and to be Devout, are Inconsistent. §. VIII. The Conclusion Framed upon All the Premised Discourse, and Our Love Safely Addressed.”, in Miscellanea Spiritualia: Or, Devout Essaies, London: […] W[illiam] Lee, D[aniel] Pakeman, and G[abriel] Bedell, […], →OCLC, page 179:

     [A]ll libertine diſcourſe, and familiarities vvith vvomen, […] nay even friendſhip it ſelfe […] muſt be vvatched vvith great prudence to be kept ſafe: for vvhich cauſe in ſtead of all theſe perillous commerces of our love, I vvill preferre ſo ſecure an object to it, […]

   • 1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica‎^[1]:

     Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.

3. (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.

   carnal commerce

4. (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

Hyponyms

• E-commerce
• e-commerce
• electronic commerce
• m-commerce
• silent commerce
• social commerce

Derived terms

• anticommerce
• biocommerce
• chamber of commerce
• Commerce City
• commerce destroyer
• commerceless
• commerce raider
• commerce raiding
• commerciable
• commercial
• conversational commerce
• cybercommerce
• ecommerce
• Incoterm
• recommerce
• s-commerce
• s-Commerce
• telecommerce

Translations

large scale trade

• Afrikaans: handel (af), ruil
• Albanian: tregti (sq) f
• Amharic: ንግድ ? (nəgd)
• Arabic: تِجَارَة f (tijāra)
• Armenian: առեւտուր (hy) (aṙewtur)
• Asturian: comerciu m
• Azerbaijani: alver (az), ticarət (az)
• Bangi: mombongo
• Bashkir: сауҙа (sawða), коммерция (kommertsiya)
• Belarusian: га́ндаль (be) m (hándalʹ), каме́рцыя f (kamjércyja), тарго́ўля f (tarhówlja)
• Bengali: বাণিজ্য (bn) (banijjo), তেজারত (bn) (tejarot)
• Bulgarian: търго́вия (bg) f (tărgóvija)
• Burmese: အရောင်းအဝယ် (my) (a.raung:a.wai), ဝါဏိဇ္ဇ (my) (wanijja.), ကုန်သွယ်ရေး (my) (kunswaire:)
• Catalan: comerç (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 貿易 / 贸易 (zh) (màoyì), 交易 (zh) (jiāoyì), 商業 / 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: εμπόριο (el) n (empório)

  Ancient Greek: ἐμπορία f (emporía)

• Greenlandic: niuerneq
• Hebrew: סַחַר (he) m (sakhar), מִסְחָר (he) m (miskhar)
• Hindi: व्यापार (hi) m (vyāpār), वाणिज्य (hi) m (vāṇijya), व्यवसाय (hi) m (vyavsāy)
• Hungarian: kereskedelem (hu)
• Icelandic: verslun (is) f
• Indonesian: perdagangan (id), tata niaga (id)
• Irish: tráchtáil f
• 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 (kommercıya), сауда (sawda)
• Khmer: ពាណិជ្ជកម្ម (km) (piənɨccĕəʼkam), វណិជ្ជា (km) (vĕəʼnɨcciə), ពាណិជ្ជ (km) (piənɨc)
• Korean: 무역(貿易) (ko) (muyeok), 교역(交易) (ko) (gyoyeok), 상업(商業) (ko) (sang'eop)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sewda (ku)

• Kyrgyz: соода (ky) (sooda), коммерция (kommertsiya)
• Lao: ການຄ້າ (lo) (kān khā), ທຸລະກິດ (lo) (thu la kit), ວານິດ (wā nit)
• Latin: commercium n
• Latvian: komercija f, tirdzniecība (lv) f
• Lingala: mombongo
• Lithuanian: komercija f, prekyba (lt) f
• Macedonian: трговија f (trgovija), комерција f (komercija)
• Malay: perdagangan (ms)
• Malayalam: വാണിജ്യം (ml) (vāṇijyaṁ), വ്യാപാരം (ml) (vyāpāraṁ)
• Maltese: kummerċ m
• Manx: cochionneeaght f
• Māori: tauhokohoko
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: худалдаа (mn) (xudaldaa)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: handel (no) m

  Nynorsk: handel m

• Pali: vaṇijjā
• Pashto: سوداګري f (sawdāgarí), تجارت (ps) m (teǰārát)
• Persian: تجارت (fa) (tejârat), سودا (fa) (sowdâ)
• Polish: handel (pl) m
• Portuguese: comércio (pt) m
• Romanian: comerț (ro) n
• Russian: торго́вля (ru) f (torgóvlja), комме́рция (ru) f (kommércija)
• Sanskrit: वाणिज्य (sa) n (vāṇijya)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трго̀вина f

  Latin: trgòvina (sh) f

• Sicilian: cummerciu (scn) m
• Sikkimese: ཁེ་ཚོང (khe tshong)
• Slovak: obchod m
• Slovene: trgovina (sl) f
• Spanish: comercio (es) m
• Swahili: biashara (sw) class 9/10
• Swedish: handel (sv) c
• Tagalog: kalakalan, pangangalakal
• Tajik: тиҷорат (tijorat), савдо (savdo)
• Tatar: сәүдә (tt) (säwdä)
• Thai: พาณิชย์ (th) (paa-nít), ธุรกิจ (th) (tú-rá-gìt), การค้า (th) (gaan-káa)
• Tocharian B: karyor n
• Turkish: ticaret (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: تجارت (ticâret)

• Turkmen: söwda
• Ukrainian: торгі́вля f (torhívlja), коме́рція (uk) f (komércija)
• Urdu: تجارت f (tijārat), سودا m (saudā)
• 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: общу́ване (bg) n (obštúvane)
• Catalan: comerç (ca) m
• Finnish: vuorovaikutus (fi), sosiaalinen kanssakäyminen
• Georgian: ურთიერთობა (urtiertoba)
• Hungarian: érintkezés (hu)
• Russian: обще́ние (ru) n (obščénije)

coitus

• Bulgarian: сноше́ние (bg) n (snošénie)
• Finnish: yhdyntä (fi), seksuaalinen kanssakäyminen
• French: rapports (fr) m pl
• Russian: сноше́ние (ru) n (snošénije)

term in cards

• Bulgarian: надда́ване n (naddávane)
• Catalan: comerç (ca) m
• Finnish: commerce (fi)

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.
   • 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, signature [C iiij], verso:

     [A]lwaies beware you commerce not with bankrupts, […]

2. (intransitive, archaic) To hold conversation; to communicate.
   • 1840, John Wilson, “On the Genius and Character of Burns”, in The Land of Burns, a Series of Landscapes and Portraits, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of the Scottish Poet. […], volume II, Glasgow; Edinburgh: Blackie & Son, […], →OCLC, page cxxxix:

     [T]hey will call to mind […] musicians who taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven, and dropt unhonoured into a hole of earth— […]

   • 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— […]

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “commerce”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “commerce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French commerce, borrowed from Latin commercium (“commerce, trade”), from com- (“together”) + merx (“good, wares, merchandise”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mɛʁs/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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Noun

commerce m (plural commerces)

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

Derived terms

• commerce équitable
• commercial
• café du commerce
• fonds de commerce

Related terms

• marché
• marchand

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: komès

See also

• négoce

Further reading

• “commerce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

From French commerce (“commerce”).

Noun

commerce

1. business, commerce

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales