different between merchant vs boatswain

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.

English

Alternative forms

• bosun, bo'sun, boson, bos'n, bo's'n

Etymology

From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English b?tswe?en, from b?t (“boat”) + swe?en (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from Old Norse sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat +? swain (“boy, servant”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b??.s?n/; (spelling pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b??t.swe?n/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /?bo?.s?n/

Noun

boatswain (plural boatswains)

1. The officer (or warrant officer) in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, cables etc. and all work on deck of a sailing ship.
2. The petty officer of a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen.
3. A kind of gull, the jaeger.
4. The tropicbird.

Derived terms

• boatswain-bird
• boatswain's chair
• boatswain's mate
• boatswain's pipe

Quotations

Translations

References