Etymologically
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marketplace

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Etymology

It is a compound from English market + place.[1][2][3][4] The OED compares Dutch marktplaats and German Marktplatz.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An open space in a town where a market is held: 1389, in the Inquisitions Miscellaneous.[1] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century,[2] and Chaucer used it once.[5]

Semantic evolution

For more than five centuries the word was used only of the physical place.[1] Its figurative use for any setting in which ideas and the like are sought or exchanged is dated 1926 in the OED and 1942 in Etymonline.[1][2] In economics, from 1960, the marketplace became the world of trade and commerce in general,[1] a sense Collins gives as the commercial world of buying and selling.[6] Merriam-Webster also records it as the everyday world of work into which a person goes to earn a living.[3] In slang it has meant the vagina (from 1661) and, in the United States, the part of a town where street prostitutes work (from 1965).[7]

Timeline

  • 1389 – an open space where a market is held.[1][2]
  • 1661 – slang, the vagina.[7]
  • 1926 – figurative, a place where ideas are exchanged;[1] 1942 in Etymonline.[2]
  • 1960 – in economics, the world of commerce.[1]
  • 1965 – (US slang) the area where street prostitutes work.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An open square or space in a town where a market is held.
  2. The world of commerce, trade and economic activity: The new phone struggled in a crowded marketplace.
  3. A setting in which ideas, opinions or values compete for acceptance: Online forums became a marketplace for political opinion.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com