trade | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

189 entries found.

mid-15c., "occupation or trade of a saddler," from saddler + -y (1). From 1841 as "place where saddles are made or sold," in this sense perhaps from or felt as saddle (n.) + -ery.

brack (adj.)

"salty, briny," 1510s, from Dutch brak "brackish," probably from Middle Dutch brak "worthless," a word also used in commercial trade and which also made its way into early Modern English.

lite (adj.)

alternative spelling of light (adj.1), by 1962, but used from at least 1917 as a word-forming element in product names, often as a variation of light (n.).

The word Adjusto-Lite for portable electric lamps was opposed by the user of a trade mark Auto-lite registered before the date of use claimed by the applicant. ["The Trade-Mark Reporter," 1922]

Coincidentally lite in Old English and early Middle English meant "few; little; not much;" see little (adj.), which is an extended form of it.

haberdasher (n.)

early 14c. (late 13c. as a surname), "seller of small articles of trade" (caps, purses, beads, thread, stationery, etc.), from Anglo-French, where apparently it was an agent noun formation from hapertas "small wares," also a kind of fabric, a word of unknown origin. Sense of "dealer in men's wares" is 1887 in American English, via intermediate sense of "seller of caps." Middle English haberdash (n.) "small articles of trade sold by a haberdasher" appears to be a back-formation from this word, and the verb haberdash is late (1630s) and rare.

anker (n.)

also anchor, liquid measure in North Sea and Baltic trade (equivalent to from 9 to a little more than 10 gallons), early 14c., from Dutch, related to German Anker, Swedish ankare, Medieval Latin anceria "keg, vat," which is of unknown origin.

Luminal (n.)

trade name of phenobarbitone, used as a sedative and hypnotic, coined 1912 in German from Latin lumen "light" (from suffixed form of PIE root *leuk- "light, brightness") + -al (3), "the root here being used, very irregularly, as an equivalent of pheno-" [Flood].

ad (n.)

abbreviation of advertisement, attested by 1841. Long resisted by those in the trade, and according to Mencken (1945) denounced by William C. D'Arcy (president of Associated Advertising Clubs of the World) as "the language of bootblacks, ... beneath the dignity of men of the advertising profession."

calling (n.)

mid-13c., "outcry, shouting," also "a summons or invitation," verbal noun from call (v.). The sense "vocation, profession, trade, occupation" (1550s) traces to I Corinthians vii.20, where it means "position or state in life."

all-over (adj.)

"covering every part," 1859, from the adverbial phrase; see all + over (adv.). As a noun, by 1838 as the trade name for a button, etc., gilded on both sides rather than only the top. All-overish "generally, indefinitely indisposed" is from 1820. Related: All-overishness.

blue-plate (adj.)

in reference to restaurant meals, 1918, from blue (adj.1) + plate (n.). The term arose in the trade, to refer to a complete dinner offered at a reasonable price and served on a single, large plate of a good grade of china.

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