barter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bartren,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old French barater (“to cheat, deceive; to exchange, haggle”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} a word of uncertain origin recorded from the 12th century.^[8][2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster take it from the Middle French form barater, also bareter, which meant to cheat, exchange, barter and do business.^[2][3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the late 12th century, chiefly for causing trouble, making a disturbance and arguing, but also for bartering.^[10] Hoad says that the links between the French verb and the English one are missing,^[9] and the OED takes the English verb as apparently a derivative of the English verb barrat, with the suffix seen in batter, falter and stutter, though no intermediate form has been found;^[11] it compares the French verb, which Godefroy records for exchanging in 1373, and Italian barattare (“to barter”) and Spanish baratar (“to sell cheap, to deceive”).^[11][12] The French verb is from barat (“deceit, trickery; barter”),^[12][4][13] also the source of barratry and barrator.^[13][5] For its origin Skeat and Etymonline suggest a Celtic source, comparing Irish brath (“treachery”), Breton barad (“treachery”) and Welsh brad (“treachery”),^[4][8] and Partridge adds Old Irish mrath (“betrayal”);^[13] Partridge and Collins also mention a possible link with a Greek verb meaning "to do".^[13][14] Etymonline notes that the link between trading and cheating exists in several languages,^[8] and Weekley gives a German example.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give a commodity in exchange for another taken as of equal value, rather than for money: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[11][2] The noun is recorded from 1465 in Barnhart,^[2] whereas the OED's first record is from 1592^[11] and Etymonline's from the 1590s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive use, to trade by exchanging goods, appears about 1503.^[11] Figurative senses followed: to exchange (1596) and to part with something for an unworthy or mercenary gain, to bargain away (1667).^[11] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as trafficking by exchange of commodities, or the thing given in exchange, quoting Bacon.^[15] The noun came to mean the goods themselves (1713) and, figuratively, any exchange or interchange, of blows, insults or talk (1819, in Scott's Ivanhoe).^[11][6] In 1950s Australian slang on the barter meant working as a prostitute.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – to give goods in exchange for other goods.^[11][2]
• 1465 – noun, trade by exchange.^[2] The OED's first record of the noun is from 1592.^[11]
• c. 1503 – intransitive, to trade by exchanging goods.^[11]
• 1596 – figurative, to exchange.^[11]
• 1667 – to part with for a mercenary or unworthy gain.^[11]
• 1713 – goods to be bartered.^[11]
• 1819 – figurative noun, exchange, interchange.^[11][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To trade by exchanging goods or services for other goods or services, without using money: The villagers bartered fish for salt.^[14][3][11]
2. To give something in exchange for something else: He bartered his labour for a place to sleep.^[3][11][6]
3. To haggle over the terms of such an exchange; to bargain.^[14]
4. (often with away) To give up something valuable for an unworthy return.^[11][3]

Noun

1. The practice of trading by exchanging goods rather than buying and selling for money.^[14][3][11]
2. The goods given in such an exchange.^[3][11][6]
3. Any exchange or interchange, as of words or blows.^[11][6]

Word family

• barterer
• unbartered

Related words

• barratry
• barrator

Usage notes

A separate slang word barter, used at Winchester College for a half-volley at cricket or a hard hit, was named after a man called Barter who was famous for his swipes.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)