MERCANTILE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mercantile

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/mˈərkəntˌaɪl/ Listen

adjective

Mercantile adj. Of or pertaining to merchants, or the business of merchants; having to do with trade, or the buying and selling of commodities; commercial. "The expedition of the Argonauts was partly mercantile, partly military."

Mercantile agency, an agency for procuring information of the standing and credit of merchants in different parts of the country, for the use of dealers who sell to them.

Mercantile marine, the persons and vessels employed in commerce, taken collectively.

Mercantile paper, the notes or acceptances given by merchants for goods bought, or received on consignment; drafts on merchants for goods sold or consigned.

Synonyms: Mercantile, Commercial. Commercial is the wider term, being sometimes used to embrace mercantile. In their stricter use, commercial relates to the shipping, freighting, forwarding, and other business connected with the commerce of a country (whether external or internal), that is, the exchange of commodities; while mercantile applies to the sale of merchandise and goods when brought to market. As the two employments are to some extent intermingled, the two words are often interchanged.

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Etymology of 'Mercantile'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mercantile" Quotes from Famous Books

... from a practical as from an artistic point of view. The Austral and the Orient can be moored alongside natural wharves in the very heart of the city. There are coves sufficient to hold the combined fleets of the world, mercantile and naval. The outer harbour is the paradise of yachtsmen; the inner, of oarsmen. The gardens of suburban villas run down to the water's edge along the headlands and points, and there are thousands of unoccupied ...

— Town Life in Australia - 1883 • R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny

... of bottoms, and vessels will be in brisk demand," Matt predicted. "There'll be a sharp rise in freight rates on all commodities the instant war breaks out, and the American mercantile marine ought to reap ...

— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne

... table, which matched its surroundings in dinginess, he indulged in a glass of sherry, and a game of dominoes with Don Baltasar Reinoso, who was one of the many who lived in Lancia on an income of four or five thousand pesetas. At three o'clock he repaired to the Mercantile Club, where, with three of the Indians, who formed the nucleus of that social gathering, he indulged in the classic game of chapo[F] until five o'clock, when, if we went to the house of the dean of the cathedral, we should come ...

— The Grandee • Armando Palacio Valds

... or manufacturing or banking would do for me and would be suited to me. I wonder which is the best! Mercantile business gives one a good chance to show what he is made of. A man with ideas ought to succeed in it; that is, if he is pushing and has plenty of originality. A. T. Stewart, what a fortune he made! He was original, he did things in a new way, advertised differently, got up new ideas, and pushed ...

— The Boy Broker - Among the Kings of Wall Street • Frank A. Munsey

... that Larcom's influence kept them from or saved them from a lot of trouble. The O'Donovans were an accomplished family, the one I knew best, besides Edmond, being Richard, who has held a responsible mercantile position for some years, and who furnished me with much valuable information about his father, when Thomas Flannery—one of our best Gaelic scholars—was writing a life of Dr. John O'Donovan for ...

— The Life Story of an Old Rebel • John Denvir

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