different between commoditize vs merchandise

English

Alternative forms

• commoditise

Etymology

commodity +? -ize

Verb

commoditize (third-person singular simple present commoditizes, present participle commoditizing, simple past and past participle commoditized)

1. (US, business, proscribed) To transform into a commodity, particularly of an existing product.

Usage notes

The earlier commodify is more common, sometimes used synonymously, and sometimes considered more correct, with commoditize proscribed. In other use these are distinguished, with commoditize used in business contexts to mean when the market for products that used to be distinguishable becomes a commodity market, where products are interchangeable and there is heavy price competition, while commodify is used in social contexts to mean that a non-commercial good has become commercial, typically with connotations of “corrupted by commerce” – “Microprocessors are commoditized. Love is commodified.”

Synonyms

• commodify

Derived terms

• commoditization/commoditisation

References

English

Alternative forms

• merchandize (non?standard)
• merchaundise, merchaundize (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English marchaundise, from Anglo-Norman marchaundise, from marchaunt (“merchant”).

See etymology for merchant

Pronunciation

• (General American) (noun) IPA^(key): /?m?t??n?da?s/, /?m?t??n?da?z/
• (General American) (verb) IPA^(key): /?m?t??n?da?z/
• (Received Pronunciation) (noun) IPA^(key): /?m??t??n?da?s/, /?m??t??n?da?z/
• (Received Pronunciation) (verb) IPA^(key): /?m??t??n?da?z/

Noun

merchandise (usually uncountable, plural merchandises)

1. (uncountable) Goods which are or were offered or intended for sale.
   • 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.
4. (uncountable, archaic) The act or business of trading; trade; traffic.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "merchandise": returned, used, damaged, stolen, assorted, lost, promotional, industrial, cheap, expensive, imported, good, inferior.

Synonyms

• merch
• wares
• product

Translations

Verb

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.
   • a. 1626, Francis Bacon, Of Usury

     merchandising , which is the vena porta of wealth in a State : the second , that it makes poor merchants ; for as a farmer cannot husband his grown so well if he sit at a great rent

2. (intransitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of goods, as by display and arrangement of goods.

3. (transitive, archaic) To engage in the trade of.
4. (transitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of.

5. (transitive) To promote as if for sale.

Translations

Related terms

References

• merchandise at OneLook Dictionary Search
• merchandise in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “merchandise”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “merchandise”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: merchandisent, merchandises

Verb

merchandise

1. first-person singular present indicative of merchandiser
2. third-person singular present indicative of merchandiser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of merchandiser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of merchandiser
5. second-person singular imperative of merchandiser