mercado

Forms

mercado m (plural mercados)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mercātus (“trade; market, fair”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mercado in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin noun is formed on mercor (“to trade, deal”) with the action-noun suffix -tus.^[5][1] Houaiss explains it from the supine.^[2] In the medieval language it coincided in form with the past participle of mercar “to buy”, and Silva Bastos still treats it as that participle.^[1][6]

The same Latin word is Galician mercado, Spanish mercado, Catalan mercat, Occitan mercat, French marché and Italian mercato.^[7][1]

The verb belongs with merx (“goods, merchandise”), from Proto-Italic *merk- (“trade, exchange”), a family that also includes mercēs (“payment”) and the god's name Mercurius.^[8] De Vaan derives the root from a word of the economy that he takes to be of Etruscan origin, while Nikolaev and Matasović have proposed Indo-European etymologies.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of Portugal use the word from the 12th century: in mercado aut in ecclesia in 1162 and in concilio aut in mercado uel in ecclesia in 1185.^[4] The first vernacular record in the DDGM is from 1262, en concello ou en mercado ou en egleia “in the council or in the market or in the church”, where it means the place of public trade.^[4] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have Irey cras a mercado “I'll go to market tomorrow”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the cantigas d'escarnho the word also meant a deal or bargain: de gran mercado was “very cheap” and mal mercado “a bad deal, dear”.^[4][9] Morais (1813) still records bom mercado “a good price, cheap” beside the sense “fair, market square”.^[10] Viterbo defines it as a place set aside for buying and selling on a certain day, like a feira.^[11]

The old Caldas Aulete adds the covered market building and a city that is a great centre of trade, as London.^[12] In economics it came to mean the system of supply and demand, the body of consumers of a product and the trade of a country or between countries, with many compounds (mercado de capitais, mercado negro, mercado de trabalho).^[2][1] Hunsrik, the German dialect of southern Brazil, borrowed it as Mërkaat.^[1]

Timeline

• 1162 – in mercado in a Latin charter of Portugal.^[4]
• 1262 – en concello ou en mercado ou en egleia, the first vernacular record.^[4]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas d'escarnho use the word.^[4]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral speaks of the towns and markets of Castile.^[4]
• 1390–1437 – the Horto do Esposo has the word.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin mercatus and emporium.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records bom mercado “cheap”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A market, a public place, covered or open, where traders sell food and everyday goods.^[2][12][1]
2. A shop or establishment where certain goods are sold: mercado de peixe.^[2][1]
3. A gathering of traders in a public place on a set day (feira).^[2][15]
4. The business done at such a place; the state of trade.^[2]
5. A city or country that is an important centre of trade.^[2][12]
6. (economics) The system of commercial relations governed by supply and demand; the world of trade.^[2][12][1]
7. (economics) The body of buyers of a product or service, or the area where there is demand for it.^[2][12][1]
8. (economics) The economic transactions within a country or between countries: mercado interno.^[2]
9. (figurative) A sphere in which anything is exchanged.^[1]

Word family

• hipermercado
• supermercado

Related words

• mercar
• mercador
• Latin mercātus
• Galician mercado

Usage notes

Common compounds are mercado negro “black market”, mercado de trabalho “labour market”, mercado livre “free market” and economia de mercado “market economy”.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mercado
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mercado
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. mercado
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. mercado
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5516
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. mercado2
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 290
11. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 130
12. ^ a b c d e Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mercado
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mercado
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mercado
15. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. mercado