Etymologically
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sale

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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

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