different between commerce vs merchanta

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?m.?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m.?s/, (dated) /k??m??s/

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.
   • 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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• chamber of commerce
• commercial

Translations

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, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour

     Beware you commerce not with bankrupts.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To hold intercourse; to commune.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Walking to the Mail

     commercing with himself

   • 1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns

     Musicians […] taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven.

Further reading

• commerce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• commerce in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

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): /k?.m??s/

Noun

commerce m (plural commerces)

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

Derived terms

• commercial

See also

• négoce

Further reading

• “commerce” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French commerce (“commerce”).

Noun

commerce

1. business, commerce

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales