mercantile
[ mur-kuh n-teel, -tahyl, -til ]
/ ˈmɜr kənˌtil, -ˌtaɪl, -tɪl /
adjective
of or relating to merchants or trade; commercial.
engaged in trade or commerce: a mercantile nation.
Economics. of or relating to the mercantile system.
RELATED WORDS
profitable, financial, wholesale, monetary, economic, fiscal, industrial, commercial, budgetary, exchange, trade, trading, market, retail, commissary, merchandising, sales, supplying, marketable
Nearby words
- merc.,
- merca,
- mercado,
- mercalli,
- mercalli scale,
- mercantile agency,
- mercantile paper,
- mercantile system,
- mercantilism,
- mercaptan
Origin of mercantile
1635–45; < French < Italian: pertaining to merchants, equivalent to mercant(e) merchant (< Latin mercant-, stem of mercāns buyer, noun use of present participle of mercārī to buy) + -ile -ile
Synonym study
1. See commercial.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for mercantile
mercantile
/ (ˈmɜːkənˌtaɪl) /
adjective
of, relating to, or characteristic of trade or traders; commercial
of or relating to mercantilism
Word Origin for mercantile
C17: from French, from Italian, from mercante merchant
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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mercantile
1640s, from French mercantile (17c.), from Italian mercantile, from Medieval Latin mercantile, from Latin mercantem (nominative mercans) "a merchant," also "trading," present participle of mercari "to trade," from merx (see market (n.)). Mercantile system first appears in Adam Smith (1776).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper