emporium

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɛmˈpɔːɹ.i.əm/ (UK); /ɛmˈpoɹ.i.əm/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin emporium,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek ἐμπόριον (empórion, “trading place, market”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from émporos “merchant”, originally “traveller”,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from en “in” and póros “passage, voyage”.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A place where goods are traded, often a town or country that is a centre of commerce (1586).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Greek emporos meant especially a large-scale, often seagoing merchant, as opposed to a local shopkeeper.^[4] The English word properly meant a commercial hub,^[4][7] but by the 1830s it was being applied grandly to an ordinary shop,^[4][7] and that is now its main sense.^[2][5][6]

Timeline

• 1586 – a centre of commerce.^[7][3][5]
• 1727 – a European trading post in the East Indies, now obsolete.^[7]
• 1839 – pompously, a shop or warehouse.^[7][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large store selling many kinds of goods.
2. A place where goods are bought and sold; a marketplace or centre of trade.

Usage notes

Random House gives market, marketplace and bazaar as synonyms.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press