Etymology
From Middle English market, from late Old English market (market) and Anglo-Norman markiet, Old French marchié; both ultimately from Latin mercātus (trade, market), from mercor (I trade, deal in, buy), itself derived from merx (wares, merchandise). Cognate with Old Frisian merkad, merked, marked, market (market), Middle Dutch market, marct (market), Old High German markat (market), Old Norse markaðr (market).
Noun
market (plural markets)
- A gathering of people for the purchase and sale of merchandise at a set time, often periodic.
- The right to hold a weekly market was an invaluable privilege not given to all towns in the Middle Ages.
- A city square or other fairly spacious site where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise.
- A grocery store
- Stop by the market on your way home and pick up some milk.
- A group of potential customers for one's product.
- Nobody thought there was a market for a mobile phone with buttons this day in age, until people with disabilities voiced their concerns.
- A geographical area where a certain commercial demand exists.
- Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.
- A formally organized, sometimes monopolistic, system of trading in specified goods or effects.
- The stock market ceased to be monopolized by the paper-shuffling national stock exchanges with the advent of Internet markets.
- The sum total traded in a process of individuals trading for certain commodities.
Derived terms
- after-market
- bear market
- black market
- bond market
- bull market
- buyer's market
- capital market
- commodity market
- competitive market
- currency market
- dark market
- downmarket
- dry market
- e-market
- fair market value
- farmers' market
- farm market
- financial market
- flea market
- foreign exchange market
- free market
- futures market
- global market
- housing market
- information market
- job market
- labor market
- market cap
- market economy
- marketeer
- marketing
- marketplace
- market research
- market share
- market square
- market value
- mass market
- meat market
- mini market
- seller's market
- stock market
- supermarket
- test-market
- upmarket
- virtual market
- wet market
- white market
Related terms
- mart
- mercantile
- merchant
Verb
market (third-person singular simple present markets, present participle marketing, simple past and past participle marketed)
- To make (products or services) available for sale and promote them.
- We plan to market a new software development tool by next quarter.
- To sell.
- We marketed more this quarter already than all last year!
- To deal in a market; to buy or sell; to make bargains for provisions or goods.
- To shop in a market; to attend a market.
Derived terms
- marketeer
Related terms
- marketer
- marketing campaign
Credits
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