chapman English · revision 39602

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited, compound|attested=Old English, translation of Bede|origins=gmw-pro *kaupmann}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * US: /ˈt͡ʃæpmən/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|chapman]] (also [[m|enm|chepman]]), [[inh|ang|cēapman|t=merchant, trader]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Klein 1966)^(Bosworth-Toller) a compound of [[m|ang|cēap|t=trade, bargain, price]], the source of [[cheap]], and [[m|ang|mann|t=man]].^(OED 2026)^(Hoad 1986)^(Collins 2023) It continues a West Germanic compound [[gmw-pro|*kaupmann]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) which also gave [[goh|choufman]] (modern [[m|de|Kaufmann]]) and [[nl|koopman]];^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Dictionary.com 2016) compare [[ofs|kāpman]] and [[non|kaupmaðr]].^(Bosworth-Toller)^(MWU 2024) Etymonline traces the Germanic word for trade, probably an early borrowing, to [[la|caupō|t=petty tradesman, huckster]], of unknown origin.^(Etymonline) Old English also had the forms [[m|ang|cȳpman]] and [[m|ang|cȳpeman]], formed on the verb meaning "to sell".^(OED 2026)^(Bosworth-Toller) The OED explains the vowel: the regular Middle English outcome was ''chepman'', but the Old English vowel sometimes merged with the palatal sound before it and left ''a'', which gave the modern form.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A man whose business is buying and selling, a merchant or trader: Old English, in the translation of Bede.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) Bosworth-Toller quotes the laws of Ine, which required a chapman trading among the people to do so before witnesses.^(Bosworth-Toller)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Middle English the word could also mean a purchaser or customer, a sense the OED dates from ?c1225 to 1807 and Etymonline illustrates with the Devil as "þe chapmon of helle", the buyer of souls, about 1200.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) Johnson (1755) knew only this sense, a would-be buyer, and quoted Shakespeare's "you do as chapmen do, Dispraise the thing that you intend to buy".^(Johnson 1755) The general sense "merchant" became archaic; from the late 16th century the usual meaning was a travelling dealer, a hawker or pedlar (?1593);^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) the OED also records "broker, negotiator" from 1570 to 1659.^(OED 2026) The pedlar sense lived on in Scotland, Ireland and northern and eastern England,^(Wright 1898) as in Burns's "When chapman billies leave the street" (1790).^(Wright 1898) Skeat took the familiar word [[chap]] to be short for ''chapman''.^(Skeat 1911)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Old English – a merchant, trader.^(OED 2026)

+ * about 1200 – a purchaser.^(Etymonline)

+ * a1225 – ''chapmen'', market people (obsolete by 1393).^(OED 2026)

+ * 1553 – ''petty chapman'', a retail dealer.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1570 – a broker, agent (obsolete by 1659).^(OED 2026)

+ * ?1593 – an itinerant dealer, pedlar.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # (archaic) A [[merchant]] or [[trader]].^(MWU 2024)^(Collins 2023)

+ # (historical, chiefly British) A travelling dealer who sold small goods; a [[pedlar]] or [[hawker]].^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+ # (archaic) A buyer or customer.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[chapmanship]]

+ * [[chap]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[chapbook]]

+ * [[cheap]]

+ * [[chaffer]]

+ * [[coper]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}