Merchandise

How to spell merchandise

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce merchandise

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does merchandise mean?

1. nounGoods or commodities bought and sold, especially items offered for retail.
2. verbTo promote and arrange the sale of goods, especially through display and marketing.

Merchandise in a sentence

• noun

  The shop received a fresh delivery of merchandise on Monday.

• verb

  The team learned how to merchandise seasonal products near the entrance.

• noun

  Customers can return any damaged merchandise within thirty days.

• verb

  Retailers merchandise new ranges with eye-catching window arrangements.

Where does merchandise come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from the Old French marchandise, meaning 'goods, wares, or the business of trading', which was built on marchand, the word for a merchant or trader. That French term descends from the Vulgar Latin mercatantem and ultimately from the Latin verb mercari, 'to trade or buy', which itself grew from the noun merx, meaning 'wares' or 'goods for sale'. English adopted it in the 1300s, when commerce with French-speaking traders was thriving, and the same merx root survives in relatives such as 'merchant', 'commerce', 'market', and 'mercenary'. The spelling trap lives in the middle and the end: the silent first 'h' in 'merch-' and the '-dise' ending, which sounds like 'dize' but keeps an 's', not a 'z'. Remembering that it shares its 'merch-' opening with 'merchant' helps lock that order of letters in place.

How the word is built

• merchand- (from Old French marchand: merchant, trader)
• -ise (noun/verb suffix denoting goods or the act of trading)