merxとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Proto-Italic *merks (compare Faliscan 𐌌𐌄𐌓𐌂𐌖𐌉 (mercui, dative), Oscan 𐌌𐌄𐌓𐌉𐌊𐌖𐌉 (merikui, dat.sg.), names of deities), of uncertain etymology. De Vaan relates this word to Mercurius, deriving them both from a root referring to various aspects of economics, which he presumes to have an Etruscan origin.

However, in the 2020s, Nikolaev and Matasović independently proposed Indo-European etymologies for merx. Both derivations assume that the simple -c- in the oblique cases was analogically levelled based on the nominative singular, as all velars merged to *-k- when immediately preceding the nominative singular *-s in Italic.

• Nikolaev reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *merkʷ-, relating merx to Ancient Greek μάρπτω (márptō, “to take hold”) and Tocharian A märk- (“to take away”).
• Matasović instead derives this word from a root *merǵ- (“to divide”), whence also margō (“border”), Proto-Celtic *mrogis, Proto-Germanic *markō, and Persian مرز (marz), the verbal sense of which survives in Hittite 𒈥𒀝𒍣 (mar-ak-zi /⁠marktsi⁠/, “to cut up, separate, divide, distribute”). The connection to Hittite was in fact already suggested by Puhvel (2004). This root *merǵ- may itself be an extension of *mer- (“to divide, apportion, allot”), for which see Latin mereō. Compare typologically Mongolian зах (zax, “border, boundary, edge; market, bazaar”).

発音

• (Classical Latin) IPA: [ˈmɛrks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: [ˈmɛrks]

名詞

merx f (genitive mercis); third declension

1. merchandise, commodity
2. goods, wares

語形変化

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

派生語

• commercium
• mercēs
• mercimōnium
• mercor

派生した語

参照

Further reading

• “merx”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “merx”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “merx”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) the stipulated reward for anything: pacta merces alicuius rei
    
  • (ambiguous) to set out goods for sale: exponere, proponere merces (venales)
    
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “merchant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.