commerce

commerce

See also: Commerce and commercé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.əs/, (dated) /kɒˈmɜːs/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.mɚs/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• 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.
   • 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.

3. (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
   • 1648, Walter Montagu Miscellanea Spiritualia, or Devout Essaies

     these perillous commerces of our love

4. An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.[1]

Synonyms

• trade, traffic, dealings, intercourse, interchange, communion, communication
• See also Thesaurus:copulation

Derived terms

• chamber of commerce
• commerce destroyer
• commerce raider
• commerce raiding
• commercial
• E-commerce
• e-commerce
• electronic commerce
• m-commerce
• silent commerce
• social commerce

 

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) Bashkir: сауҙа (sawða), коммерция (kommertsiya) Belarusian: га́ндаль (be) m (hándalʹ), каме́рцыя f (kamjércyja), тарго́ўля f (tarhóŭlja) Bengali: বাণিজ্য (bn) (baṇijẏ), তেজারত (bn) (tejarôtô) Bulgarian: търго́вия (bg) f (tǎrgóvija) 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: ἐμπορία f (emporía) Greenlandic: niuerneq Hebrew: סַחַר‎ (he) m (sakhar), מִסְחָר‎ (he) m (miskhar) Hindi: व्यापार (hi) m (vyāpār), तिजारत (hi) f (tijārat), वाणिज्य (hi) m (vāṇijya), सौदा (hi) m (saudā) Hungarian: kereskedelem (hu) Icelandic: verslun (is) f Indonesian: perdagangan (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 (kommersiä), сауда (sauda) 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 f Lithuanian: komercija f, prekyba (lt) f Macedonian: трговија f (trgovija), комерција f (komercija) Malay: perdagangan (ms) Malayalam: വാണിജ്യം (ml) (vāṇijyaṃ), വ്യാപാരം (ml) (vyāpāraṃ) Maltese: kummerċ m Manx: cochionneeaght f Maori: 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 Roman: trgòvina (sh) f Sicilian: cummerciu (scn) m 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) (säüdä) Thai: พาณิชย์ (paa-nít), ธุรกิจ (th) (tú-rá-gìt), การค้า (th) (gaan-káa) Tocharian B: karyor n Turkish: ticaret (tr) 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; 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.

2. (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

1. 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

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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

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

See also

• négoce

Further reading

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

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Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French commerce (“commerce”).

Noun

commerce

1. business, commerce

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales