mercatus

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /merˈkaː.tus/, [mɛrˈkäːt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /merˈka.tus/, [merˈkäːt̪us]

Etymology 1

From mercor (“I trade, traffic, deal”) +‎ -tus (action noun suffix).

Noun

mercātus m (genitive mercātūs); fourth declension

1. trade, traffic, buying and selling
2. market, marketplace
3. festival assemblage, public feast

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	mercātus	mercātūs
genitive	mercātūs	mercātuum
dative	mercātuī	mercātibus
accusative	mercātum	mercātūs
ablative	mercātū	mercātibus
vocative	mercātus	mercātūs

Related terms

• mercābilis
• mercālis
• mercāns
• mercantia
• mercātiō
• mercātor
• mercātōrius
• mercātūra
• mercimōnium
• mercor
• merx

Descendants

• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: mercadu, melcadu
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Italian: mercato
    • → French: mercato
    • → Spanish: mercato
  • Neapolitan: mercato
  • Sicilian: mircatu
  • Venetan: mercà, marcà
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: marcjât
  • Ladin: marcià
  • Romansch: marcua
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: mercat
  • Franco-Provençal: marchiê
  • Old French: marchié (see there for further descendants)
  • Occitan: mercat
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: mercáu
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: mercado
    • Fala: mercau
    • Galician: mercado
    • Portuguese: mercado
      • → Hunsrik: Mërkaat
  • Old Spanish: mercado
    • Ladino: merkado
    • Spanish: mercado (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowings (see there for further descendants):
  • → Basque: merkatu
  • → Proto-Brythonic: *marxad
  • → Old Irish: margad
  • → Proto-West Germanic: *markat

See also

• mereō

Etymology 2

Active and passive perfect participle of mercor (“to trade, sell”).

Participle

mercātus (feminine mercāta, neuter mercātum); first/second-declension participle

1. having traded
   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Epidicus 457:

     Meam amicam audivi te esse mercatum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. having been traded

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	mercātus	mercāta	mercātum		mercātī	mercātae	mercāta
genitive	mercātī	mercātae	mercātī		mercātōrum	mercātārum	mercātōrum
dative	mercātō	mercātae	mercātō		mercātīs
accusative	mercātum	mercātam	mercātum		mercātōs	mercātās	mercāta
ablative	mercātō	mercātā	mercātō		mercātīs
vocative	mercāte	mercāta	mercātum		mercātī	mercātae	mercāta

Further reading

• “mercatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mercatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "mercatus", 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)
• mercatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.