Category:Commerce

Com"merce, n.

Note: (Formerly accented on the second syllable.) Etym: [F. commerce, L. commercium; com- + merx, mercis, merchadise. See Merchant.]

1. The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; esp. the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic. The public becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of private men. Hume.

2. Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity. Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser. Macaulay.

4. A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade. Hoyle. Chamber of commerce. See Chamber.

Syn. -- Trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.

commerce Com*merce" ( or, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Commerced; p. pr. & vb. n. Commercing.] Etym: [Cf. F. commercer, fr. LL. commerciare.]

1. To carry on trade; to traffic. [Obs.] Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. B. Jonson.

2. To hold intercourse; to commune. Milton. Commercing with himself. Tennyson. Musicians. . . taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven. Prof. Wilson.