merchandise

English Online Dictionary. What means merchandise‎? What does merchandise mean?

English

Alternative forms

• merchandize (non‐standard)
• merchaundise, merchaundize (obsolete)
• mdse (abbreviation)

Etymology 1

From Middle English marchaundise (“commerce, trading; buying; business transaction, deal; merchandise, goods, wares; possessions”), from Anglo-Norman marchaundise and Old French marcheandise (modern French marchandise), from Old French marcheant (“seller, vendor”) (ultimately from Latin mercātus (“buying and selling, trade, traffic; market; marketplace”), possibly originally Etruscan) + -ise (suffix forming feminine nouns, often denoting a quality or state). The English word is analysable as merchant +‎ -ise.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːt͡ʃəndaɪs/, /-daɪz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝt͡ʃəndaɪs/, /-daɪz/
• Hyphenation: mer‧chan‧dise

Noun

merchandise (usually uncountable, plural merchandises)

1. (uncountable) Goods which are or were offered or intended for sale.
2. (uncountable) Commercial goods connected (branded) with an entity such as a team, band, company, charity, work of fiction, festival, or meme. (Commonly shortened to merch.)
3. (countable, archaic) A commodity offered for sale; an article of commerce; a kind of merchandise.
4. (uncountable, archaic) The act or business of trading; trade; traffic.

Synonyms

• merch
• wares
• product

Derived terms

• distress merchandise
• merch

Related terms

• mercantile
• merchant
• merchantable

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English marchaundisen (“to engage in commerce, traffic”), from marchaundise (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːt͡ʃəndaɪz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝt͡ʃəndaɪz/
• Hyphenation: mer‧chan‧dise

Verb

merchandise (third-person singular simple present merchandises, present participle merchandising, simple past and past participle merchandised)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To engage in trade; to carry on commerce.
2. (intransitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of goods, as by display and arrangement of goods.

3. (transitive, archaic) To engage in the trade of.
4. (transitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of.

5. (transitive) To promote as if for sale.

Translations

References

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “merchandise”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “merchandise”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• “merchandise”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “merchandise”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: merchandisent, merchandises

Verb

merchandise

1. inflection of merchandiser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative