English
commerce
Commerce is borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium ‘trade’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcommercium1‘trade’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600commerce1
- Englishearliest quotation 1599commerce1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English commerce
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, B. I. [i.e.: “[A]lwaies beware you commerce not with bankrupts, […]”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcommerciumWiktionary, English commerce‘trade’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600commerceWiktionary, English commerce
- Englishearliest quotation 1599commerceWiktionary, English commerce. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, B. I. [i.e.: “[A]lwaies beware you commerce not with bankrupts, […]”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with commerce, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Latin merx ‘merchandise’
- market ← mercātus ← mercor
- mercy ← merci ← mercēs
- merchant ← marchaunt ← marchaunt ← mercāns ← mercor
- merchandise ← marchaundise ← marcheandise ← marcheant ← *mercātāntem
- mercantile ← mercante ← mercantem ← mercor
- mercenary ← mercenarye ← mercēnārius ← mercēs
- mercer ← marcer
- merci ← mercēs
- mercantilism ← mercantile ← mercantile ← mercantile ← mercante
18 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “commerce”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin commercium / commerce