mercante

Forms

mercante m (plural mercanti, feminine mercantessa)^[1] Old Italian also had marcante, recorded in the Anonimo genovese.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][4][5] DELI, GRADIT, Zingarelli and Sabatini–Coletti take it as inherited from Latin mercāns (“trading; a trader”), the present participle of mercor (“to trade”), which is from merx (“goods, merchandise”).^[2][6][7][8] Zingarelli and Gabrielli start from the plural mercantes, used as a noun.^[7][9] The GDLI calls the word learned.^[3]

Nocentini makes it an Italian formation: the present participle of the old verb Old Italian mercare (“to trade”), from the Late Latin active mercāre beside the classical deponent.^[4][10] Devoto–Oli, Treccani and Devoto see a shortening by haplology of mercatante, from mercato, formed as bracciante is from braccio.^[5][11][12] Körting also notes the longer form beside it, as if from a frequentative *mercatare.^[13]

The Latin participle gave Old Occitan mercadan and Old French marcheant, whose ⟨a⟩ comes from marcher; modern French has marchand.^[13] Old Spanish and Portuguese have mercador instead, from another suffix, and Spanish mercante comes from Italian.^[10][4]

The Latin noun belongs to a stem Proto-Italic *merk- also found in Faliscan and Oscan, as in the name of the god Mercurius.^[14] Walde and Hofmann thought the name was Etruscan, and in principle the whole stem could be.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word before 1294.^[7] The Genoese poems of the Anonimo genovese, from the late 13th or early 14th century, have the form marcanti for the merchants who bring pepper, ginger and other wares da turi canti (“from all sides”).^[2][3] The form mercante appears before 1342 in Domenico Cavalca.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the mercante traded on a large scale, and the word could also name a moneylender or banker, or a merchant who also served as treasurer of the Church or collector of the commune's taxes.^[6][11] The medieval guilds had their casa dei mercanti and loggia dei mercanti.^[11] A Tuscan proverb in Tommaseo contrasts the trades: Mercante di vino, mercante poverino; mercante d'olio, mercante d'oro (“a wine merchant is a poor merchant, an oil merchant is a merchant of gold”).^[15]

Today the word is used mostly of the past or of particular trades, and often with a negative colour, of someone ruled by greed.^[6][8][11] Fare orecchie da mercante, to pretend not to hear, is the commonest phrase.^[11][7] The GDLI's supplement records mercante d'arte (1991) and mercanti di morte, arms traders (1985); Devoto–Oli and Treccani use the latter for drug dealers.^[3][5][16] Mercante in fiera is a card game played with two identical packs.^[5][7]

The derivatives followed the trade: mercantile “of a merchant” before 1368 and “relating to trade” from 1537–1540, mercantesco before 1405, mercanteggiare “to bargain” before 1610.^[2] Mercantilismo (before 1872) and mercantilista (before 1937) were helped by English mercantilism and mercantilist.^[2] French borrowed mercanti for Italian merchants in isolated records from 1298 and again in 1859, for a trader in an Arab market.^[17]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[7]
• Late 13th or early 14th century – The Anonimo genovese has marcanti.^[2][3]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses mercante.^[2]
• Before 1368 – Mercantile “of a merchant” appears in Matteo Villani.^[2]
• Before 1610 – Mercanteggiare is first recorded.^[2]
• 1782 – Mercantile is used as a noun for a merchant ship.^[2]
• 1859 – French mercanti is recorded for a trader in an Arab market.^[17]
• Before 1872 – Mazzini uses mercantilismo.^[2]
• 1985 – Mercanti di morte “arms traders” appears in La Repubblica.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A merchant or trader, especially one of the past: Suo nonno era un mercante di lana a Prato.^[6][8][11]
2. (figurative, derogatory) A person ruled by greed and personal gain.^[6][5][9]
3. (historical) A moneylender or banker.^[6][5][16]
4. (games) In mercante in fiera, a card game played with two identical packs, like an auction.^[5][7][16]

Word family

• mercanteggiare
• mercantesco
• mercantile
• mercantilismo
• mercantilista
• mercanzia
• mercantare
• mercantessa
• mercantiere

Related words

• mercatante
• mercato
• merce
• Latin merx

Usage notes

The feminine is mercantessa, now literary.^[8][7] Mercante d'arte is an art dealer, and mercante di schiavi a slave trader.^[5][7][9]

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 278
13. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it