trade English · revision 3447

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1375|origins=gml trade}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /treɪd/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|trade|t=path, track, course]], [[bor|gml|trade|t=track, course]] or Middle Dutch trade,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) introduced through Hanseatic merchants, presumably of a ship's course.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) It is cognate with [[osx|trada|t=footstep, track]], [[goh|trata|t=track, way]] and Old English [[m|ang|tredan|t=to tread]], the source of [[tread]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A path, track, course of action: about 1375,^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) senses now obsolete.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A course or manner of life is from 1456,^(OED 1989) or the mid-15th century.^(Etymonline) Trench explains that ''trade'' was properly the path we tread, and so the habitual manner of one's life.^(Trench 1859) One's habitual business or occupation, especially a skilled craft, is from the 1540s,^(Etymonline) or the early 16th century,^(Cresswell 2021) and buying and selling from the 1550s.^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) By the 1650s anything practised for a living was a ''trade''.^(Etymonline) ''The Trade'' has meant the London booksellers since 1697.^(Etymonline) The ''trade wind'' (1640s) has nothing to do with commerce: it keeps the old sense “in a regular course”.^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986)^(Cresswell 2021) The verb meant “to tread a path” in the 1540s, “to engage in commerce” from the 1560s, and “to barter” by 1793.^(Etymonline) An exchange of players between teams is by 1913, and the verb in this sense from 1899.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1375 – a path, course.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1456 – a way of life.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1540s – an occupation; verb, to tread.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1550s – commerce.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1640s – ''trade wind''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1697 – ''the Trade'', booksellers.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1793 – verb, to barter.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1913 – an exchange of players.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The business of buying and selling goods; [[commerce]].^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+ # An occupation, especially a skilled manual one; a [[craft]].^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # The people working in a business or industry; its customers.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # An act of buying or selling; an exchange of one thing for another.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # ''trades'': the [[trade wind|alt=trade winds]].^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To engage in buying and selling.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # To exchange one thing for another; to [[barter]].^(AHD)^(Etymonline)

+ # To buy and sell shares or commodities.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[tradable]]

+ * [[tradeless]]

+ * [[untraded]]

+ * [[cross-trade]]

+ * [[outtrade]]

+ * [[overtrade]]

+ * [[retrade]]

+ * [[trade down]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[tread]]

+ * [[trader]]

+ * [[tradesman]]

+ * [[trade wind]]

+ * [[trademark]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}