Etymologically
Log in

mercare

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Italian word mercare

mercare1 to trade

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1200s
Borrowed from
Latin mercor
Ultimate origin
Latin merx
Etymology tree of mercare1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin merx
Italian merce
Latin mercor
Spanish mercar
Italian mercare
From the same root · mercare1
Latin commercium ← merx
Latin mercēs ← merx
Latin mercimōnium ← merx
Latin emercor ← mercor
Latin mercātor ← mercor
Latin mercātūra ← mercor
Latin mercātus ← mercor

Pronunciation

  • /merˈka.re/[1]

Forms

mercare (first-person singular present mèrco, first-person singular past historic mercài, past participle mercàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

The word for trading is learned: it is borrowed from Latin mercor (“to trade; to buy”), formed from merx (“goods, merchandise”).[2][3][4][5][6][7] Wiktionary treats it as inherited.[1] The same verb is Spanish mercar and Portuguese mercar.[8][9] Körting set up an active Vulgar Latin *mercō beside the classical deponent, and noted that Italian more often used mercantare, mercatare and negoziare.[9]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun and its family from a stem Proto-Italic *merk- (“trade, exchange”), also found in Faliscan and Oscan, and notes that the whole stem may have been borrowed from Etruscan.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dictionaries date the verb to the 13th century, and Zingarelli to 1321.[4][6][3] Dante uses it in the Paradiso for the trading life of Florence: Tal fatto è fiorentino e cambia e merca “one has become a Florentine, and changes money and trades”.[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The verb was intransitive, “to trade, to deal”, and transitive, “to buy, to make something an object of trade”: Dante's là dove Cristo tutto dì si merca “there where Christ is bought and sold every day”, and Poliziano's ivi menzogne a vil pregio si mercano “there lies are sold cheap”.[13][4][12] Sacchetti records the precept Non mercare niuna cosa il sabato “Do not trade anything on the Sabbath”.[11][7]

Petrarch's Pur lagrime e sospiri e dolor merco “I gain only tears and sighs and grief” gave the figurative sense “to obtain, to bring on oneself”, which Bembo and Tasso also use.[4][11][6] The past participle mercato was used as an adjective, “bought”.[12] The verb is now literary or obsolete.[4][3][13] DEI dates mercatore to the 14th century and mercatura to the 16th.[14]

Timeline

  • 13th century – First records of the verb.[4][6][14]
  • 1321 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.[3]
  • 14th century – Mercatore “merchant” is recorded.[14]
  • 16th century – Mercatura “trade” is recorded.[14]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To trade, deal in goods, haggle: Mercava in spezie con i porti del Levante.[4][6][12][3]
  2. (archaic, transitive) To buy or sell something, make it an object of trade.[4][5][12]
  3. (figurative, literary) To obtain, earn or bring on oneself.[4][6][5][3]

Word family

  • mercatura
  • mercatore
  • mercatorio

mercare2 to brand cattle

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1300s
Borrowed from
Occitan mercar
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *markōną

Pronunciation

  • /merˈka.re/[1]

Forms

mercare (first-person singular present mèrco, first-person singular past historic mercài, past participle mercàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

The word for branding cattle is borrowed from Old Occitan mercar, a verb of Germanic origin.[4][6][12][15][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *markōną (“to mark; to notice”).[1] DEI, under merco, takes the family from Frankish *merkjan, the source of Old French merc (“brand”), merchier (“to brand”) and merca.[16] Treccani compares German merken (“to mark”).[12]

The GDLI instead derives the Italian verb from the Old French verb for branding, also merquier, recorded in 1190 and formed from the noun for the brand, recorded in 1119.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI dates the verb to the 14th century and cites Old Roman mercare “to stamp” from 1363, beside merco “stamp”.[14][16] The Abruzzese of Avezzano had mérco and its verb in the same century.[16]

Semantic evolution

The verb belongs to the rural speech of Tuscany (Lucca, Pisa, Grosseto, Monte Amiata) and of southern Italy.[14] Calabrian mercari means to brand, to mark, and also to hit the target, and Sicilian has mercu and merca for the brand.[16] Campanella uses it for the signs with which God marks men more than women, and Petrocchi records bales that are marked before they are shipped and the phrase Voglio far mercare questo ciuco “I want to have this donkey branded”.[7]

The noun merco “brand” is recorded by Oudin in 1639, and merca in the 20th century.[16][17] Today the verb is a regional word of Tuscany and of central and southern Italy.[6][12][1]

Timeline

  • 1119 – Merc “brand” is recorded in Old French.[7]
  • 1190 – Old French merchier “to brand” is recorded.[7]
  • 14th century – First records of the Italian verb.[4][6][14]
  • 1363 – Old Roman mercare “to stamp” is recorded.[16]
  • 1639 – Oudin records merco “brand”.[16]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (regional) To brand livestock with a hot iron: Domani si mercano i vitelli nati in primavera.[4][6][12][1]
  2. (archaic, regional) To mark goods with a sign.[7]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2427
  15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2428
  17. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2426

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Mercare.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/mercare. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·