Online Etymology Dictionary

business: O.E. bisignisse (Northumbrian) "care, anxiety," from bisig "careful, anxious, busy, occupied" (see busy) + -ness. Sense of "work, occupation" is first recorded late 14c. Sense of "trade, commercial engagements" is first attested 1727. Modern two-syllable pronunciation is 17c. Business card first attested 1840; business letter from 1766.
businessman: 1826, from business + man. Man of business is recorded from 1670.
negotiation: 1579, from L. negotiationem (nom. negotiatio) "business, traffic," from negotiatus, pp. of negotiari "carry on business," from negotium "business," lit. "lack of leisure," from neg- "not" (see deny) + otium "ease, leisure." The shift from "doing business" to "bargaining" about anything took place in Latin.
pragmatic: 1543 (implied in pragmatical), from M.Fr. pragmatique, from L. pragmaticus "skilled in business or law," from Gk. pragmatikos "versed in business," from pragma (gen. pragmatos) "civil business, deed, act," from prassein "to do, act, perform." Pragmatism in philosophy is attested from 1898, first in William James, probably from Ger. Pragmatismus.
firm (n.): "business house," 1744, from Ger. Firma "a business, name of a business," originally "signature," from It. firma "signature," from firmare "to sign," from L. firmare "make firm, affirm, confirm (by signature)," from firmus "firm, stable" (see firm (adj.)).
office: c.1250, "a post, an employment to which certain duties are attached," from L. officium "service, duty, function, business" (in M.L., "church service"), lit. "work-doing," from ops (gen. opis) "power, might, abundance, means" (related to opus "work") + stem of facere "do, perform" (see factitious). Meaning "place for conducting business" first recorded c.1565. Office hours attested from 1841.
solicit: c.1422, "to disturb, trouble," from M.Fr. soliciter, from L. solicitare "to disturb, rouse," from sollicitus "agitated," from sollus "whole, entire" + citus "aroused," pp. of ciere "shake, excite, set in motion" (see cite). Meaning "to further (business affairs)" evolved c.1450 from M.Fr. sense of "manage affairs." The sexual sense (often in ref. to prostitutes) is attested from 1701, probably from a merger of the business sense and an earlier sense of "to court or beg the favor of" (a woman), attested from 1591.
COBOL: 1960, U.S. Defense Department acronym, from "Common Business-Oriented Language."
biz: 1862, Amer.Eng., colloquial and phonetic shortening of business.
cc: 1936 as abbreviation of carbon copy in business correspondence.
Beretta: It. firearms manufacturer, business attested from 1526, founded by gunsmith Bartolomeo Beretta (1498-1565) of Lombardy.
Tin Pan Alley: "hit song writing business," 1908, from tin pan, slang for "a decrepit piano" (1882). The original one was 28th Street in New York City, home to many music publishing houses.
patronize: 1589, "to act as a patron towards," from patron (q.v.). Meaning "treat in a condescending way" is first attested 1797; sense of "give regular business to" is 1801.
Madison Avenue: "values and business of advertising and public relations," 1955, from the street in Manhattan, laid out c.1836 and named for U.S. President James Madison. The concentration of advertising agencies there seems to date from the 1940s.
voucher: originally "summoning of a person into court to warrant the title to a property;" see vouch. Meaning "receipt from a business transaction" is first attested 1696; sense of "document which can be exchanged for goods or services" is attested from 1947.
management: 1598, "act of managing," from manage (q.v.). Meaning "governing body" (originally of a theater) is from 1739. Manager is 1588 in the sense of "one who manages;" specific sense of "one who conducts a house of business or public institution" is from 1705.
agribusiness: 1955, compound formed from agriculture + business.
agenda: 1650s, from L., lit. "things to be done," from neut. pl. of agendum, gerundive of agere (see act). Originally theological (opposed to matters of belief), sense of "items of business to be done at a meeting" first attested 1882.
beeswax: 1670s, from bee + wax. As a jocular alteration of business (usually in an injunction to someone to mind his own) attested from 1934 in Lower East Side slang as reproduced in Henry Roth's "Call It Sleep."
outset: "act of setting out on a journey, business, etc." 1759, from out + set (v.). The earlier word for this was outsetting (1676).
parapraxis: "faulty action, blunder," 1912, from Mod.L., from para- "beside" + Gk. praxis "a doing, transaction, business," from stem of prattein "to do." In psychology, a minor error held to reveal a subconscious motive.
busyness: 1849, first attested in Thoreau, from busy + -ness. A modern formation made necessary after business evolved an independent meaning.
corporation: 1530s, "persons united in a body for some purpose," from such use in Anglo-Latin, from L. corporationem, noun of action from corporare "to embody" (see corporate). Meaning "legally authorized entity" (including municipal governments and modern business companies) is from 1610s.
patronage: 1412, "right of presenting a qualified person to a church benefice," from M.L. patronizare (1382) or O.Fr. patroniser (1456); see patron. General sense of "power to give jobs or favors" is from 1769; meaning "regular business of customers" is 1804.
actuary: 1550s, "registrar, clerk," from L. actuarius "copyist, account-keeper," from actus "public business" (see act). Modern insurance office meaning first recorded 1849. Related: Actuarial (1869).
u: for historical evolution, see V. Used punningly for you by 1588 ["Love's Labour's Lost," V.i.60], not long after the pronunciation shift that made the vowel a homonym of the pronoun. As a simple shorthand (without intentional word-play), it is recorded from 1862. Common in business abbreviations since 1923 (e.g. U-Haul, attested from 1951).
backdoor: "devious, shady, illegal," 1640s, from back + door. The notion is of business done out of public view. The association with sodomy is at least from 19c.; also back-door man "a married woman's lover," black slang, early 20c.
slump (v.): 1677, "fall or sink into a muddy place," probably from a Scand. source, cf. Norw. and Dan. slumpe "fall upon," Swed. slumpa; perhaps ultimately of imitative origin. The noun meaning "heavy decline in prices on the stock exchange" is from 1888; generalized to "sharp decline in trade or business" 1922.
Soroptimist: international society of business women and women executives, first club formed 1921 in Oakland, Calif., U.S., from sorority + optimist, probably after the Optimist Club.
company: 1150, from O.Fr. compaignie "body of soldiers," from L.L. companio (see companion). Meaning "subdivision of an infantry regiment" is from 1590. Sense of "business association" first recorded 1553, having earlier been used in reference to trade guilds (c.1300). Abbreviation co. dates from 1759.
drum: 1420s, from M.Du. tromme "drum," probably of imitative origin. Not common before 1575. To drum up (business, etc.) is Amer.Eng. 1839, from the old way of drawing a crowd. Drumstick is from 1589; applied to the lower joint of cooked fowl 1764.
competition: 1608, "action of competing," from L. competitionem "agreement, rivalry," noun of action from competere (see compete). Meaning "a contest for something" is from 1610s. Sense of "rivalry in the marketplace" attested from 1793; that of "entity or entities with which one competes" is from 1961, especially in business.
branch: c.1300, "limb of a tree" (also used of things analogous to it, especially geographic features), from O.Fr. branche, from L.L. branca "footprint," later "a claw, paw," of unknown origin, probably Gaulish. Meaning "local office of a business" is first recorded 1817, from earlier sense of "component part of a system" (1696). The verb meaning "to diverge from a central point" is first attested 1799.
manage: 1561, probably from It. maneggiare "to handle," esp. "to control a horse," from L. manus "hand" (see manual). Influenced by Fr. manège "horsemanship" (earliest Eng. sense was of handling horses), which also was from the Italian. Extended to other objects or business from 1579. Slang sense of "get by" first recorded 1655.
occupation: mid-14c., "a being employed in something," also "a particular action," from O.Fr. occupacion (12c.), from L. occupationem (nom. occupatio) "a taking possession, business, employment," from occupatus, pp. of from occupare (see occupy). Meaning "trade" is from 1520s.
agency: 1650s, "acting of an agent," from M.L. agentia, noun of state from L. agentem (nom. agens, gen. agentis), prp. of agere (see act). Meaning "establishment where business is done for another" first recorded 1861.
pidgin: 1876, from pigeon English (1859), the reduced form of the language used in China for communication with Europeans, from pigeon (1826), itself a pidgin word, representing a Chinese pronunciation of business. Meaning extended 1921 to "any simplified language."
specialize: 1616, "to indicate specially," from special (q.v.). Sense of "engage in a special study or line of business" is first attested 1881; biological sense is from 1851. Specialzation is recorded from 1843. Specialist is first attested 1856 (originally in the medical sense).
muckraker: "one who inquires into and publishes scandal and allegations of corruption among political and business leaders," popularized 1906 in speech by President Theodore Roosevelt, in allusion to character in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" (1684) who seeks worldly gain by raking filth.
"The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck." [T. Roosevelt, quoted in "Cincinnati Enquirer," April 15, 1906.]
amuse: late 15c., from M.Fr. amuser "divert, cause to muse," from a "at, to" (but here probably a causal prefix) + muser "ponder, stare fixedly." Sense of "divert from serious business, tickle the fancy of" is recorded from 1630s, but through 18c. the primary meaning was "deceive, cheat" by first occupying the attention. Bemuse retains more of the original meaning.
snoop: 1832, "to go around in a prying manner," Amer.Eng., "to appropriate," probably from Du. snoepen "to pry," also "eat in secret, eat sweets, sneak," probably related to snappen "to bite, snatch" (see snap). Specific meaning "to pry into other people's business" is attested from 1921. The noun meaning "detective" is recorded from 1891. Snoopy (adj.) first recorded 1895.
off-season: 1848, "a period when business is down," from off + season.
ratio: 1636, "reason, rationale," from L. ratio "reckoning, calculation, business affair, procedure," also "reason," from rat-, pp. stem of reri "to reckon, calculate," also "think" (see reason). Mathematical sense is attested from 1660.
commission: 1344, from L. commissionem (nom. commissio) "delegation of business," from commissus, pp. of committere (see commit).
merge: 1636, "to plunge or sink in," from L. mergere "to dip, immerse," probably rhotacized from *mezgo, and cognate with Skt. majjati "dives under," Lith. mazgoju "to wash." Legal sense of "absorption of an estate, contract, etc. into another" is from 1726. Merger (n.) in the business sense first recorded 1889; not common until c. 1926.
apraxia: medical L., from Ger. apraxie (H. Steinthal, 1871), from Gk. apraxia "inaction," from privative prefix a- + praxis "a doing, action, business."
exchange (n.): late 14c., from Anglo-Fr. eschaunge, from O.Fr. eschangier, from V.L. *excambiare, from L. ex- "out" + cambire "barter" (see change). Sense of merchants or lenders meeting to exchange bills of debt led to meaning "building for mercantile business" (1580s).
A.D.: 1579, from L. Anno Domini "Year of the Lord." First put forth by Dionysius Exiguus in 527 or 533 C.E., but at first used only for Church business. Introduced in Italy in 7c., France (partially) in 8c. In England, first found in a charter of 680 C.E. Ordained for all ecclesiastical documents in England by the Council of Chelsea, July 27, 816. The resistance to it may have been in part because Dionysius chose 754 A.U.C. as the birth year of Jesus, while many early Christians would have thought it was 750 A.U.C. [See John J. Bond, "Handy-Book of Rules and Tables for Verifying Dates With the Christian Era," 4th ed., London: George Bell & Sons, 1889]
procedure: 1611, "fact or manner of proceeding," from Fr. procédure "manner of proceeding" (1197), from O.Fr. proceder (see proceed). Meaning "method of conducting business in Parliament" is from 1839. First appearance of procedural is 1889.
venture (v.): c.1436, "to risk the loss" (of something), shortened form of aventure, itself a form of adventure. General sense of "to dare, to presume" is recorded from 1559. Noun sense of "risky undertaking" first recorded 1566; meaning "enterprise of a business nature" is recorded from 1584. Venture capital is attested from 1943.