merchandise

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See also: merchandisé

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English marchaundise (“commerce, trading; buying, purchasing; business transaction, bargain, deal; agreement; trade, vocation; merchandise, goods, wares; possessions, wealth; reward; ability or right to carry on business; market; communication between God and humans; sale of indulgences; simony; paid advocate or orator (?)”),[1] from Anglo-Norman marchaundise and Old French marcheandise (modern French marchandise), from Old French marcheant (“seller, vendor”) (ultimately from Latin mercātus (“buying and selling, trade, traffic; market; marketplace”), possibly originally Etruscan) + -ise (suffix forming feminine nouns, often denoting a quality or state). The English word is analysable as merchant +‎ -ise.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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merchandise (usually uncountable, plural merchandises)

  1. (uncountable) Goods which are or were offered or intended for sale.
    Good business depends on having good merchandise.
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 84, column 2:
      So, if a Sonne that is by his Father ſent about Merchandize, doe ſinfully miſcarry vpon the Sea; the imputation of his vvickedneſſe, by your rule, ſhould be impoſed vpon his Father that ſent him: […]
    • 1908, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1, page 29:
      The custom of giving away merchandise for advertising purposes is greatly on the increase in this country. More goods are now distributed in one year as advertising novelties and as premiums than in a decade 10 or 15 years ago.
    • 1936, Cecil Day Lewis, The Whispering Roots, Jonathan Cape, page 175:
      It has been stated that Fred Beers is giving free merchandise to this store and I believe you will find that one of your inspectors obtained a bottle of milk free when he purchased some groceries on Thursday Nov. 23rd [1933].
  2. (uncountable) Commercial goods connected (branded) with an entity such as a team, band, company, charity, work of fiction, festival, or meme. (Commonly shortened to merch.)
  3. (countable, archaic) A commodity offered for sale; an article of commerce; a kind of merchandise.
    • 1622, John Wing (Minister of the English congregation at Flushing.), The Best Merchandise, Or a Cleare Discovery of the Evident Difference, and Admirable Advantage, Between Our Traffike with God for the True Treasure and with Men for Temporall Commodity, page 9:
      Would we then see in what sence heavenly things may be called a merchandise, and in what sence not; this is easy to him that will understand.
    • 1822 June 18, Great Britain. Parliament, “Marriage Act Amendment Bill”, in The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, published 1823, page 1135:
      What security was there that she might not be a very unfit person, one who had made a merchandise of her charms, the child itself being the offspring of some accidental connexion?
    • 1839, The holy bible containing the old and the new testaments‎[1]:
      Who feeds a flock, and makes not a merchandise of the sheep?
  4. (uncountable, archaic) The act or business of trading; trade; traffic.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English marchaundisen (“to engage in commerce, traffic”),[2] from marchaundise (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).[3]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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merchandise (third-person singular simple present merchandises, present participle merchandising, simple past and past participle merchandised)

  1. (intransitive, archaic) To engage in trade; to carry on commerce.
  2. (intransitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of goods, as by display and arrangement of goods.
    He started his career merchandising in a small clothing store chain.
  3. (transitive, archaic) To engage in the trade of.
  4. (transitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of.
    He got hired to merchandise some new sporting goods lines.
  5. (transitive) To promote as if for sale.
    The record companies don't get as good a return on merchandising artists under contract.
Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “marchaundīse, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “marchaundīsen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Further reading

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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merchandise

  1. inflection of merchandiser:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative
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