commercium

English

Noun

commercium

1. A traditional academic feast, known and held at universities in most Central and Northern European countries.

Latin

Alternative forms

• commircium, conmercium

Etymology

From con- (“together, with”) + merx (“merchandise”) or merces (“pay”) + -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /komˈmer.ki.um/, [kɔmˈmɛrkiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /komˈmer.t͡ʃi.um/, [komˈmɛrt͡ʃium]

Noun

commercium n (genitive commerciī or commercī); second declension

1. Trade, traffic, commerce, exchange.

   Synonyms: mercātūra, mercātus

2. (by extension) Intercourse, communication, correspondence, fellowship.
3. (metonymically) The right to trade as a merchant, mercantile right.
4. (metonymically) An article of trade; merchandise, wares.

   Synonym: merx

5. (metonymically) A place of trade; marketplace.

   Synonym: forum

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	commercium	commercia
Genitive	commerciī commercī1	commerciōrum
Dative	commerciō	commerciīs
Accusative	commercium	commercia
Ablative	commerciō	commerciīs
Vocative	commercium	commercia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• commerciālis
• commercior

Related terms

• mercālis
• merx

Descendants

• Albanian: kumerq
• Asturian: comerciu
• Catalan: comerç
• Dutch: commercie
• English: commerce
• French: commerce
  • → German: Kommerz
• Friulian: cumierç
• Galician: comercio
• Greek: κομμέρκιον (kommérkion), κουμέρκι (koumérki)
• Italian: commercio
• Portuguese: comércio
• Romanian: comerț, comerciu
• Russian: комме́рция (kommércija)
• Sicilian: cummerciu
  • → Maltese: kummerċ
• Spanish: comercio
• Venetian: comercio

References

• “commercium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “commercium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• commercium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• commercium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • intercourse of speech: commercium linguae
    
  • correspondence: epistularum commercium
    
  • interchange of ideas; conversation: commercium loquendi et audiendi
    
• “commercium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “commercium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin