different between commoner vs merchant

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?m?n?(?)/

Etymology 1

common +? -er (“comparative suffix”)

Adjective

commoner

1. comparative form of common: more common

Usage notes

• The potential for confusion with use of the noun as an adjective, especially in the UK, makes this form less desirable. It is much less commonly used than "more common".

Etymology 2

From Middle English comoner, comyner, cumuner, equivalent to common +? -er.

Noun

commoner (plural commoners)

1. A member of the common people who holds no title or rank.
2. (Britain) Someone who is not of noble rank.
   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     All below them [the peers], even their children, were commoners, and in the eye of the law equal to each other.

3. (Britain, Oxbridge slang) An undergraduate who does not hold either a scholarship or an exhibition.
4. (obsolete, Britain, Oxford University) A student who is not dependent on any foundation for support, but pays all university charges; at Cambridge called a pensioner.
5. Someone holding common rights because of residence or land ownership in a particular manor, especially rights on common land.
6. (obsolete) One sharing with another in anything.
7. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Synonyms

• (member of the common people): See Thesaurus:commoner
• (prostitute): See Thesaurus:prostitute

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• merchaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English marchant, from Old French marchant, from Latin mercans (“a buyer”), present participle of mercor (“trade, traffic, buy”), from merx (“merchandise, traffic”), itself probably ultimately deriving from Etruscan; see also mercy.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?t??nt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??t??nt/
• Hyphenation: mer?chant
• Rhymes: -??(?)t??nt

Noun

merchant (plural merchants)

1. A person who traffics in commodities for profit.

   Synonym: trader

2. The owner or operator of a retail business.
3. A trading vessel; a merchantman.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, II. i. 5:

     Every day, some sailor's wife, / The masters of some merchant, and the merchant, / Have just our theme of woe.

4. (obsolete) A supercargo.

Derived terms

Related terms

• mercantile
• merchandise

Translations

Verb

merchant (third-person singular simple present merchants, present participle merchanting, simple past and past participle merchanted)

1. As a resident of a region, to buy goods from a non-resident and sell them to another non-resident.

   a merchanting service

Further reading

• merchant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• merchant in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “merchant” in Roget's Thesaurus, T. Y. Crowell Co., 1911.