Etymologically
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mercenary

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmɝ.sə.ˌnɛɹ.i/; /ˈmɜː.sə.nə.ɹi/, /ˈmɜː.sən.ɹi/ (UK)[1]

Etymology

It comes from Middle English mercenarie,[2][3][4][5] from Old French mercenaire[2][3][4] and directly from Latin mercenarius (“one who works for pay”),[2][3][4][6][5] from mercēs “wages, reward”,[2][3][4][6][5] which is related to merx “goods”.[4][5] It is related to merchant and mercy.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who works only for hire, with no higher motive than gain; a hireling (c. 1386).[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

From 1523 the noun also meant one who is paid for his services, and especially a professional soldier serving a foreign power,[7] which is now its chief sense.[7][2][6] The adjective followed in 1532, meaning “working only for reward”,[7][3][6] and so “greedy, venal”;[6][4] by 1589 it also meant “hired”, now said only of soldiers.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – a hireling.[7][3]
  • 1523 – a hired soldier serving a foreign power.[7]
  • 1532 – adjective, working for gain.[7][3][6]
  • 1589 – adjective, hired.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.
  2. A person who works only for money; a hireling.

Adjective

  1. Motivated only by the wish for money or material gain; venal.
  2. Hired to serve in a foreign army.

Word family

  • mercenarily
  • mercenariness
  • merchant
  • mercy
  • market
  • commerce

Usage notes

Random House gives grasping, acquisitive, avaricious and covetous as synonyms of the adjective, and altruistic and unselfish as antonyms.[5]

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