sale

Pronunciation

• IPA: /seɪl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sale,^[2][3] late inherited from Old English sala (“a sale, act of selling”),^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old Norse sala (“sale”),^[4][5][2] from Proto-Germanic *salō,^[3][2] the source also of Old High German sala “sale, delivery” and Old English salu.^[3][6] It comes from the base of the Germanic verb that gave sell,^[7][3] from Proto-Indo-European *sal- (“to grasp, take”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of selling: about 1050.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

To sale, “for sale”, is from about 1380, and on sale by the 1540s;^[8][2] for sale is from 1611.^[8] A public auction is from 1673,^[8] and the selling of shop goods at lower prices than usual from 1866.^[2][8] An unrelated Old English sale, a hall or palace, and a Middle English sale, a rope for tying cattle, are obsolete.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – the act of selling.^[3][8]
• c. 1380 – to sale, for sale.^[8]
• 1540s – on sale.^[2]
• 1611 – for sale.^[8]
• 1673 – an auction.^[8]
• 1866 – a reduced-price sale.^[2][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The exchange of goods or services for money; the act of selling.
2. A period when a shop sells goods at reduced prices.
3. A public auction.
4. (plural) The amount sold, or the business of selling.
5. (for sale, on sale) Available to be bought.

Word family

• intersale
• nonsale
• presale
• resale
• saleable
• saleroom
• subsale
• wholesale

Related words

• sell
• sales
• salable

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press