merchandise

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Goods that are offered for sale.

   Good business depends on having good merchandise.

2. 2
   noun

   Branded products linked to a band, team, film, or company, often shortened to merch.

   Fans lined up to buy band merchandise after the concert.

3. 3
   verb

   To promote and arrange goods attractively in a store to encourage sales.

   He started his career merchandising clothes in a small shop.

From Middle English marchaundise (“commerce, trading; buying; business transaction, deal; merchandise, goods, wares; possessions”), from Anglo-Norman marchaundise and Old French marcheandise (modern French marchandise), from Old French marcheant (“seller, vendor”) (ultimately from Latin mercātus (“buying and selling, trade, traffic; market; marketplace”), possibly originally Etruscan) + -ise (suffix forming feminine nouns, often denoting a quality or state). The English word is analysable as merchant + -ise.

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