different between merchant vs merchandise

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

• 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