different between exchange vs traffic

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ks?t?e?nd?/
• Rhymes: -e?nd?

Etymology 1

From Middle English eschaunge, borrowed from Anglo-Norman eschaunge, from Old French eschange (whence modern French échange), from the verb eschanger, from Vulgar Latin *excambi?re, present active infinitive of *excambi? (from Latin ex with Late Latin cambi?). Spelling later changed on the basis of ex- in English.

Noun

exchange (countable and uncountable, plural exchanges)

1. An act of exchanging or trading.

2. A place for conducting trading.

3. A telephone exchange.
4. (telephony, US) The fourth through sixth digits of a ten-digit phone number (the first three before the introduction of area codes).

5. A conversation.
6. (chess) The loss of one piece and associated capture of another
   1. (usually with "the") The loss of a relatively minor piece (typically a bishop or knight) and associated capture of the more advantageous rook
7. (obsolete) The thing given or received in return; especially, a publication exchanged for another.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

8. (biochemistry) The transfer of substances or elements like gas, amino-acids, ions etc. sometimes through a surface like a membrane.
9. (finance) The difference between the values of money in different places.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English eschaungen, from Anglo-Norman eschaungier, Old French eschanger, from the Old French verb eschangier, eschanger (whence modern French échanger), from Vulgar Latin *excambi?re, present active infinitive of *excambi? (from Latin ex with Late Latin cambi?). Gradually displaced native Old English wrixlan, wixlan (“to change, exchange, reciprocate”) and its descendants, wrixle being one of them.

Verb

exchange (third-person singular simple present exchanges, present participle exchanging, simple past and past participle exchanged)

1. (transitive) To trade or barter.

   I'll gladly exchange my place for yours.

2. (transitive) To replace with, as a substitute.

   I'd like to exchange this shirt for one in a larger size.

   Since his arrest, the mob boss has exchanged a mansion for a jail cell.

Synonyms

• (trade or barter): truck, wrixle; See also Thesaurus:trade or Thesaurus:barter
• (replace with a substitute): interchange, swap; See also Thesaurus:switch

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

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

English

Alternative forms

• traffick

Etymology

From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *tr?nsfr?c?re (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic ????????? (tafr?q, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?f'?k, IPA^(key): /?t?æf?k/
• Rhymes: -æf?k

Noun

traffic (usually uncountable, plural traffics)

1. Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.

2. Commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
3. Illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
4. Exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
   1. In CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.
   2. (advertising) The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc. in a publication.
      • 1950, Advertising & Selling (volume 43, part 2, page 53)

        Those fixed locations which are sold to advertisers become preferred according to the expected page traffic.

5. Commodities of the market.

   • You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

traffic (third-person singular simple present traffics, present participle trafficking, simple past and past participle trafficked)

1. (intransitive) To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods

   Synonym: trade

2. (intransitive) To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
3. (transitive) To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.

Derived terms

• trafficker
• trafficking

Translations

References

• traffic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.