mart

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle Dutch mart, a variant of marct (“market”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which goes back to Latin mercātus (“trade, market”), the source of market.^[7][8][9] Etymonline instead takes mart as a contraction of market, probably influenced by the Middle Dutch word,^[10] and Skeat likewise calls it a shortened form of market influenced by the Dutch.^[11] The American Heritage Dictionary derives it, probably, through Middle Flemish from Vulgar Latin *marcātus.^[12] Weekley notes that Dutch markt was commonly pronounced, and formerly written, mart.^[13] The OED points out that the word may appear earlier in the surnames Martwayn (1251) and Marte (before 1327).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A regular gathering for buying and selling, at first especially in the Low Countries; a market or fair: the first record is in the Libel of English Policy (1436, in a manuscript from before 1450), which speaks of the English at the marts of Brabant.^{[2][6][7][13]}

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word belonged to the wool trade with Flanders: Weekley notes it in Caxton (the marte of Antwerp) and repeatedly in the Cely Papers, and the Celys' warehouse stood in Mart Lane, now Mark Lane, in London.^[13] From 1562 it also meant buying and selling, or a bargain, a sense that lasted in poetry until 1876.^[2] Figurative use for any place or occasion of dealings followed in 1568,^[2] and the sense of a public marketplace in 1593, though in this general use the word is now archaic or poetic.^[2][14] In the King James Bible of 1611 Tyre is called a mart of nations, and the sense of a city or region that is a centre of trade dates from then.^[2] In the early 17th century mart also named the great international book fairs, such as the Frankfurt fair.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a place of public traffic and took it as a contraction of market.^[15] The word was also a verb, to deal in or to bargain, from 1589 to 1788.^[2][8] In modern North American use mart is a shop, and it is common in the names of stores.^[16][12][17] In Cambridgeshire dialect a mart was a pleasure fair, as at Wisbech and King's Lynn, and in Cheshire a mart-cart was a market cart.^[18]

Timeline

• 1251 – perhaps in the surname Martwayn.^[2]
• 1436 – a market or fair, at first in the Low Countries.^[2][7][6]
• 1562 – buying and selling; a bargain (obsolete by 1876).^[2]
• 1568 – any place or occasion for dealings.^[2]
• 1589 – verb, to deal in, make merchandise of.^[2][8]
• 1593 – a marketplace or market hall.^[2]
• 1606 – an international book fair (until 1639).^[2]
• 1611 – a city or region that is a centre of trade.^[2][14]
• 1755 – Johnson: a place of public traffic.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A market or trading centre: the city grew into a busy mart for wool and cloth.^[19][12][8]
2. (chiefly North American) A shop or store, often in names of stores.^[16][12]
3. A building or centre where manufacturers and wholesalers sell goods to retail merchants.^[17]
4. (archaic) A fair.^[12][8][17]
5. (obsolete, 1562–1876) Buying and selling; a bargain.^[2][8][17]

Verb

1. (archaic) To deal in or sell; to trade.^[8][2][20]

Word family

• minimart

Related words

• market
• merchant
• mercantile

Usage notes

Other words spelled mart have their own origins.^[2] In Scotland and northern England a mart is an ox or cow fattened for slaughter and salted or smoked for the winter, recorded from about 1330;^[2][6][18] it comes from Scottish Gaelic mart (“cow”) and Irish mart (“carcass of beef”), or from Medieval Latin martus, used in British sources from 1211.^[2][8][4] A regional mart, a marten or polecat (1714), is a back-formation from foumart,^[2][4] and letter of mart (1571) is an alteration of letter of marque.^[2][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
6. ^ a b c d 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)
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
18. ^ a b 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)
19. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers