different between merchant vs marketplace

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

• market place

Etymology

market +? place

Noun

marketplace (plural marketplaces)

1. An open area in a town housing a public market.
2. The space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates.

   Some high-street retailers were slow to enter the new digital marketplace of the Internet.

3. (by extension) The world of commerce and trade.
4. (figuratively) A place or sphere for the exchange of anything, such as ideas or fashions.
   • 2000, Jason A. Frank, John Tambornino, Vocations of Political Theory (page 239)

     While political theory frequently appears condemned to nostalgic reflection, cultural studies often dulls its critical edge in the never-ending stampede to document the newest styles and counterstyles of the cultural marketplace.

Related terms

• market square

Translations