Merchant

How to spell merchant

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce merchant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does merchant mean?

1. nounA person or business that buys and sells goods, especially in large quantities or as a trade.
2. adjectiveRelating to trade or to the commercial shipping fleet of a country.

Merchant in a sentence

• noun

  The wine merchant delivered two cases to the restaurant.

• adjective

  He served on a merchant vessel carrying grain across the Atlantic.

• noun

  Every online merchant now accepts contactless payment.

• adjective

  The merchant navy supplied the country with fuel during the war.

Where does merchant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin verb mercari, meaning 'to trade' or 'to deal in goods', which was built on the noun merx, meaning 'merchandise' or 'wares'. English took it through Old French, where the trader was called a marchant or marcheant, and the word settled into Middle English during the 1200s as a name for someone who buys and sells for profit. The same merx root spreads across a surprising family of everyday words, including 'market', 'commerce', 'merchandise', and even 'mercy', which once carried the idea of a reward or payment before it softened into compassion. The Roman god Mercury, patron of trade and travellers, shares the same origin too. The spelling trap is the quiet middle: the 'ch' sounds soft and the ending is the agent suffix '-ant' (not '-ent'), echoing its Old French roots.

How the word is built

• merc- (from Latin merx: goods, merchandise)
• -ant (agent suffix: one who does)