English
purchase
Purchase comes from Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer ‘to seek to obtain’, from pur- + chacier ‘to chase’.
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400purchacer1‘to seek to obtain’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500purchasen1
- Englishearliest quotation 1579purchase1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English purchase
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, May. Ægloga Quinta.: “that loves the thing he cannot purchase”.
Lineage
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400purchacerWiktionary, English purchase‘to seek to obtain’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500purchasenWiktionary, English purchase
- Englishearliest quotation 1579purchaseWiktionary, English purchase. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, May. Ægloga Quinta.: “that loves the thing he cannot purchase”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with purchase, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *pro- ‘toward, forward’
through Proto-Italic *pro-
13 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “purchase”. 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 / Anglo-Norman purchacer / purchase