different between freight vs merchandise

English

Etymology

From Middle English freyght, from Middle Dutch vracht, Middle Low German vrecht (“cost of transport”), from Proto-West Germanic *fra- + *aihti, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fra- (intensive prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possession”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?ey?- (“to possess”), equivalent to for- +? aught. Cognate with Old High German fr?ht (“earnings”), Old English ?ht (“owndom”), and a doublet of fraught. More at for-, own.

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?t, IPA^(key): /f?e?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Noun

freight (usually uncountable, plural freights)

1. Payment for transportation.

   The freight was more expensive for cars than for coal.

   • 1881, Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Vol. 6, p. 412:

     Had the ship earned her freight? To earn freight there must, of course, be either a right delivery, or a due and proper offer to deliver the goods to the consignees.

2. Goods or items in transport.
3. Transport of goods.

   They shipped it ordinary freight to spare the expense.

4. (rail transport, countable) A freight train.
5. (figuratively) Cultural or emotional associations.
   • 2007, B. Richards, Emotional Governance: Politics, Media and Terror (page 116)

     This may seem to be a quite unrealistic aim, until we note that some contributors to the emotional public sphere – advertising creatives – are very aware of the emotional freight that simple words may carry, […]

Synonyms

• cargo
• luggage

Derived terms

Related terms

• fraught

Translations

Verb

freight (third-person singular simple present freights, present participle freighting, simple past and past participle freighted)

1. (transitive) To transport (goods).
2. To load with freight. Also figurative.
   • 1957, James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues,” in Going to Meet the Man, Dial, 1965,^[1]

     Everything I did seemed awkward to me, and everything I said sounded freighted with hidden meaning.

Derived terms

• freighted
• freighting

Related terms

• fraught

Translations

See also

• Freight in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• fighter, refight

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