brokerage

Etymology

It is formed from English broker + -age.^[2][3][4][5] Broker is from Middle English brokour, from Anglo-Norman brocour (“middleman, agent”).^[4][6][2] The OED derives the Anglo-Norman word from Middle Dutch brocke (“fragment”) or its cognate Middle High German brocke, with the suffix -our;^[2] Etymonline prefers Old French brocheor, from brochier (“to broach, tap a cask”), so that a broker was first a wine dealer;^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary compares a Spanish word for a gift that sealed a bargain, from Arabic.^[6] The Middle English Dictionary compares the older noun brokage, brocage.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The services of a broker: the first record is in household accounts of 1466, which note a payment "for brokerage".^[7][2] Etymonline dates the sense "a broker's trade" to the mid 15th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense "the commission paid to a broker" is recorded from 1589,^[2] or from the 1620s in Etymonline and the older OED.^[3][8] Johnson (1755) defined the word only as "the pay or reward of a broker".^[9] Because broker was also used of go-betweens in love and of pimps,^[3] brokerage could mean procuring in the 17th century, a sense the OED records once, in 1645.^[2][3] In modern use it is also a firm that buys and sells stocks and bonds for its clients.^[10]

Timeline

• 1466 – the services of a broker.^[7][2]
• 1589 – the commission paid to a broker.^[2]
• 1645 – procuring of prostitutes (rare, obsolete).^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson: the pay or reward of a broker.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The business or occupation of a broker.^{[4][11][10][2]}
2. A firm that acts as a broker, especially one that buys and sells stocks and bonds for clients: She opened an account with an online brokerage.^[10][11]
3. The fee or commission charged by a broker.^[4][11][2]

Related words

• broker
• stockbroker
• broach

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins