Market

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈmɑːkɪt/
• US IPA: /ˈmɑɹkɪt/
• Hyphenation: mar + ket

Origin

From Middle English market, from Old English market ("market") and Old Northern French markiet (Old French marchié, modern marché); both ultimately from Latin mercātus ("trade, market"), from mercor ("I trade, deal in, buy"), itself derived from merx ("wares, merchandise"), from the Italic root *merk-, possibly stemming from Etruscan, referring to various aspects of economics. Cognate with Old Frisian merked ("market"), Old High German markat ("market"), Old Norse markaðr ("market").

Full definition of market

Noun

1. City square or other fairly spacious site where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter Foreword, ‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘ … They tell me there was a recognized swag market down here.’
• 2013-07-26, Nick Miroff, Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …, The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity.
2. An organised, often periodic, trading event at such site.
   The privilege to hold a weekly market was invaluable for any feudal era burgh.
• Definition used by famous economist of the Austrian school, Ludwig Von Mises, in his book Human Action.The market is a process, actuated by the interplay of the actions of the various individuals cooperating under the division of labor.
3. A group of potential customers for one's product.
   We believe that the market for the new widget is the older homeowner.
• John Stuart Mill (1608-1674)There is a third thing to be considered: how a market can be created for produce, or how production can be limited to the capacities of the market.
4. A geographical area where a certain commercial demand exists.
   Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.
5. 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.
• 2014-03-15, Turn it off, If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets, …. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.
6. The sum total traded in a process of individuals trading for certain commodities.
7. (obsolete) The price for which a thing is sold in a market; hence, value; worth.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)What is a man
  If his chief good and market of his time
  Be but to sleep and feed?

Synonyms

• bazaar
• fair
• mart

Derived terms

Related terms

• mart
• mercantile
• merchant

Verb

1. (transitive) To make (products or services) available for sale and promote them.We plan to market an ecology model by next quarter.
2. (transitive) To sell''We marketed more this quarter already then all last year!
3. (intransitive) To deal in a market; to buy or sell; to make bargains for provisions or goods.

Derived terms

• marketeer, marketeer

Related terms

• marketer
• marketing campaign