Etymology

mercantile

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Today it means: Concerned with the exchange of goods for profit. Full definition →

French mercantile ← Italian mercantile ← Latin mercantem
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The story

  1. Proto-Italic*merks
  2. Latinmerx
  3. Latinmercor
  4. Latinmercantem
  5. Italianmercante
  6. Italianmercantile
  7. Frenchmercantile
  8. English todaymercantile

Borrowed from French mercantile, from Italian mercantile, from mercante (“merchant”), from Latin mercāns (“trading”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.