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mart

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Pronunciation

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

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