commodity
[kuh-mod-i-tee]
- an article of trade or commerce, especially a product as distinguished from a service.
- something of use, advantage, or value.
- Stock Exchange. any unprocessed or partially processed good, as grain, fruits, and vegetables, or precious metals.
- Obsolete. a quantity of goods.
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Origin of commodity
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for commodity
Contemporary Examples
If we begin to see the other as our possession and commodity, our shoe, the shadow of our shadow, is there ever a happy outcome?
If they run off with somebody else, we say they were stolen—as if they are an object or a commodity.
Taylor knows not only the value of her commodity, but also how to control it.
Taylor Swift Dumps Spotify, Igniting Turf War Between Spotify and AppleDale Eisinger
November 4, 2014
More than any other media proprietor, Rupert Murdoch had an intuitive revelation about the value of news as a commodity.
Murdoch on the Rocks: How a Lone Reporter Revealed the Mogul's Tabloid Terror MachineClive Irving
August 25, 2014
The woman is a commodity to make money—the dowry becomes a business transaction.
Historical Examples
He had also a trick to mingle his commodity, that that which was bad might go off with the least mistrust.
BunyanJames Anthony Froude
He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.
Essays, First SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
Here at Athens there is a dearth of the commodity, and all wisdom seems to have emigrated from us to you.
MenoPlato
A cent is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other commodity.
Essays, Second SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
Thus the use of commodity, regarded by itself, is mean and squalid.
NatureRalph Waldo Emerson
commodity
- an article of commerce
- something of use, advantage, or profit
- economics an exchangeable unit of economic wealth, esp a primary product or raw material
- obsolete
- a quantity of goods
- convenience or expediency
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French commodité, from Latin commoditās suitability, benefit; see commodious
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for commodity
n.
early 15c., "benefit, profit, welfare;" later "a convenient or useful product," from Middle French commodité "benefit, profit," from Latin commoditatem (nominative commoditas) "fitness, adaptation, convenience, advantage," from commodus "suitable, convenient" (see commode). General sense "property possession" is from c.1500.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
commodity
Any product manufactured or grown.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.