purchase

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈpɜː.tʃəs/, US /ˈpɝː.tʃəs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English purchasen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman purchaser (“to go after”), Old French porchacier, pourchacier “to seek to obtain, procure; pursue eagerly”,^[2][3][4] from pur- (“forth”), from Latin prō-, perhaps as an intensive,^[2][3][4] and chacier (“to run after, hunt, chase”).^[2][3] It is related to chase.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To try to procure or bring about, to contrive: 1297 in the OED.^[5] Barnhart dates the verb to probably before 1300, in Arthour and Merlin and Kyng Alisaunder, as “acquire, buy; bring about; hire”,^[3] and the noun purchas, “booty, spoil”, to the same time.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As Trench explained, the word properly meant to hunt, then to take in hunting, then to acquire, and finally, since the commonest way of acquiring is by paying money, to buy;^[6] in the six uses in the King James New Testament the idea of buying is never present.^[6] At first it meant to obtain anything due, even through merit or suffering;^[2] “to acquire by paying money, to buy” is from the mid-14th century,^[2][4] though “to obtain by conquest, as booty” lasted into the 17th century.^[2] The noun meant gain or possessions, and especially booty; to make purchase was to seize by robbery,^[2] and wif of purchase was a concubine in the early 14th century.^[2] Something bought is from the 1580s.^[2] The nautical verb “to haul up, especially an anchor”, from the 1560s, gave the noun “firm hold for applying power” in 1711.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1297 – to contrive; the chase.^[5]
• c. 1300 – noun, booty.^[3][2]
• mid-14th century – to buy.^[2]
• 1560s – nautical, to haul in.^[2]
• 1580s – something bought.^[2]
• 1711 – a firm hold.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To obtain in exchange for money; to buy.
2. To acquire by effort or sacrifice.
3. To move or hold with a lever or other device.

Noun

1. The act of buying, or something bought.
2. A firm hold or grip, used to move something or keep it from slipping.
3. A device, such as a tackle, for gaining mechanical advantage.

Word family

• purchaser
• purchasable
• counterpurchase
• mispurchase
• nonpurchase
• overpurchase
• prepurchase
• repurchase

Related words

• chase
• catch

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press