business

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbɪz.nɪs/, /ˈbɪz.nəs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bisinesse,^[2] inherited from Old English bisiġnis (“care, anxiety”),^[3][4][5] formed from Old English bisiġ (“careful, anxious, busy”) + -nis,^[6][7] that is, from busy and -ness.^[8][2] It was pronounced with three syllables in Middle English; the present two-syllable form developed in the 17th century.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anxiety, care, distress (Old English, about 950).^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

Hendrickson notes that all the earliest uses express anxiety or uneasiness.^[10] From Middle English until the 18th century the main sense was “the state of being busy”,^[11][12] and the word also meant diligence and officious meddling.^[9][3] The sense “a person's work or occupation” appears before 1387 in Trevisa's translation of Higden,^[13] and “a duty, a task” in the late 14th century;^[7] the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins and the New Oxford see these senses as the source of all the current ones.^[11][12] The meaning “trade, commercial dealings” is dated 1478 by the HTOED and 1727 by Etymonline.^[14][7] Once business had lost its link with busy, the 19th century made the new form busyness for the old sense.^[11][7] In the 17th century business could also mean sexual intercourse.^[7][15] Many phrases are recorded early: mind one's own business (1620s), business card (1840), mean business (1856) and business as usual (1865).^[7]

Timeline

• c. 950 – Old English bisiġnis, anxiety.^[6][9]
• c. 1350 – diligence, industry (obsolete).^[9]
• before 1387 – a person's occupation (Trevisa).^[13]
• 1478 – trade and commercial activity.^[14]
• 1590s – what one is doing at the moment.^[7]
• 1611 – dealings with someone, as in no business with.^[14]
• 1611 – (slang) sexual intercourse.^[15]
• 1620s – mind one's own business.^[7]
• 1727 – trade, commercial engagements collectively.^[7]
• 1840 – business card.^[7]
• 1856 – to mean business.^[7]
• 1874 – business end (American).^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person's regular occupation or trade.
2. Commercial activity; buying and selling.
3. A commercial organization; a firm.
4. The amount of trade done: business is slow.
5. Something that is one's proper concern: none of your business.
6. Work to be done or matters to be dealt with.
7. An affair or matter: a strange business.
8. (theatre) Actions other than speech performed by an actor.
9. (British informal) The business, an excellent person or thing.

Related words

• pidgin
• busy
• busyness

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary distinguishes business, the broadest term for commercial, financial and industrial activity, from industry (making goods, especially on a large scale), commerce and trade (exchanging and distributing goods) and traffic (especially transporting goods or passengers).^[8] Random House lists calling, vocation and employment as synonyms of the sense “occupation”.^[16]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
11. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House