Two Origins Of The Word Trade
In the modern world, the word “trade” connotes an act of making a trade or exchange of one item for another. And it also connotes a person’s habitual business. The first definition appears to have branched off from the second, which is cognate with medieval words connoting the path a person is treading on. The sense of trade as describing one’s accustomed business appeared in the mid 16th century.
The more modern use of “trade” to describe an exchange of goods derived from the older definition of trade in two stages. First, trade began to refer to the act of trading, in the commercial sense, and later came to imply the more specialized practice of trading individual, items for another. The use of the term in sports first appeared in 1899, and denoted an exchange of one player for another. And in 1917, the term “trade-in” first appeared, and referred to a used car which was handed over to a dealer in return for a reduced price on a new car. The expression “trade-off,” or exchange of one benefit for another, such as in negotiation, appeared in 1961.
The verbal use of trade, “trading,” appears to have developed from the noun.
The use of the word to imply buying and selling is first seen in 1555. Trading post, trade mark and trade union , three applications of the word were first seen in 1796, 1838 and 1831 respectively. And the use of trademark in the figurative sense appeared in 1873.
Before 1548, the word is described by some etymologists as having evolved from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, or OE. “Tredan,” “tretan,” (Middle High German), or “tredan” respectively all mean tread, and similarly connoting path, track or course of action. These earlier origins of the word trade are found in the 11th and 12th century. So that the more modern sense of the word trade, developed from the idea of diligently and consistently following a path, way or course of life.
Even though commercial sailing ships benefited from “trade-winds,’ the origin of the term “trade-winds” relates to the more arcane meaning of trade, and connotes a wind that is consistent. Similarly although trade is considered cognate with the words that suggest a track or course of action, the term trade route is probably of more recent origin, and simply implies a route used for trade. In fact, the use of the term “silk –road,” one of the most famous trading routes in the world, only dates back to the late 18th century.
While the origins I have just described is the most accepted source of the word, and is presented on etymonline.com, the most popular online etymology source, there is at least one other theory that the word originated in the Latin term “tradere” to deliver or hand over. This word is formed from the combination of the latin terms “trans” meaning over and “dare,” to give. While trading definitely involves the act of handing over, and while the word sound almost identical to the modern word, the theory has a flaw in that this use of the word is not seen at all in medieval languages.
Thanks to Winmax Video of California for sponsoring this report. WInmax is a California Video production company which produces many types of business videos including trade show video and restaurant video videos.
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