TJ Juvera, Kaitlin Willardson, Quentin Foust

BUS 3950-001 - Final Project Paper

Etymologies of Business Words
April 12, 2019

Throughout history, language has played a vital role in everyday human life. It has

continually shaped the way we think, communicate with one another, and also the way we live

our lives. These historically relevant effects have significant implications on our cultures and

societies. By studying the origin of the words that make up our native languages, we can further

our understanding of not only language throughout world history, but also the present day, as

well. For this semester’s final paper, our group has chosen to analyze the etymologies of a

group of words characterized by traditional, business-related concepts found frequently in the

banking industry. The chosen researched terms include market, transfer, money, bonus,

deposit, and finally, transaction.

The first term we will be discussing is market. Historically, market is defined as “a place

at which trade is conducted.” However, there are many variant definitions of this word in the

business world we know today. For example, as centuries have come to pass, our societies

continued advancements have been responsible for this term taking on many other formal

definitions, widening its meaning. For example, when we think of the stock market in 2019, we

do not think of it as a physical place for trading stocks because of its online virtual base. Over

time, the stock market has evolved accordingly with society, just as the term market has as well.

While there are numerous variations of the term that are predominantly first recorded around the

17th and 18th centuries around the rise of capitalism in North America, they all still possess a

common root meaning; giving us more understanding of how the term has changed throughout

history.

A further dive into the etymological notes in The Oxford English Dictionary reveals that

the exact origin of market is still uncertain. However, it is widely speculated to have been

brought into late Old English from borrowing the post-classical Latin etonym of market:
mercatum (c795) to Old High German in the late 8th century, and into Old Saxon by the 10th

century. Mercatum can be derived from classical Latin mercātus ‘market, fair.’ And ultimately,

mercātus finds its roots in Latin mercārī’s base: merc- ‘to buy, to trade.’ While there are still

some questions looming around its absolute origin, we do know for sure that since it was

borrowed into English, the term has undergone a form of semantic change known as widening

because of the various terms that have taken root from the original term since. There are now

over a dozen other definitions of the term market that have been formed over the past

millennium since its borrowing but they still all pertain to business in their own respective ways.

The original definition of the term in English still exists today as well, finding itself transcribed in

a plethora of different languages throughout human history.

The next term at hand is transfer in verb form. In Modern English, it means “to convey or

cause to pass from one place, person, or thing to another.” Viewing this term from a business-

centered perspective allows us to better acknowledge the broadened meaning that the term has

undergone through the years--especially in the past few decades. For instance, with the world’s

recent technological advancements, thousands of electronic money transfers (along with

physical payment transfers) take place every second across the world. Documents, dialogues,

products, emails, and thousands of other items are virtually transferred on a constant basis.

Transfers are happening more today than ever before. This occurrence has managed to expand

what the original meaning of the term was communicating when it was first brought into use

many centuries ago; resulting in a form of semantic change called widening. With new

innovations and inventions implemented across the world over the technological revolution, the

term has evolved from solely surrounding the physical actions that make up a transfer, into

virtual ones--eliminating physical elements and replacing them with easier, digitally based

methods. An excellent example of this in the business field can be found by simply looking at all

the virtual advancements that banks have shifted to using with customers throughout the years.
 According to The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, the verb

transfer was first recorded in Middle English in 1382, just before the turn of the 15th century. Its

history shows that it was borrowed from Old French transferer, which finds its roots in Latin

trānsferre. Going one step further, trānsferre can be broken down into two root Latin words:

trāns- ‘across, through’ and -ferre ‘to carry’ or ‘to bear.’ As you can see from these roots that

form the term, the original meaning has been maintained in a stable fashion, and expanded

upon as well in the ways discussed earlier. As we continue to come up with more methods of

communication and interaction (such as the internet), we will continue to experience the

widened usages of the term transfer.

With that, we will now transition into our analyzation of the term money. The Oxford

English Dictionary defines money as “any generally accepted medium of exchange which

enables a society to trade goods without the need for barter; any objects or tokens regarded as

a store of value and used as a medium of exchange.” Money was derived from the Anglo-

Norman term monai which had many spelling variations. Another predecessor of the word is Old

French monoie. It is argued that these related terminologies can likely be attributed to the

classical Roman goddess Monēta, who was originally the goddess of women and childbirth. In

Roman mythology, she was considered the most powerful goddess. Later, this changed, and

she became the protectress and symbol of money and finance. This change most likely

occurred because the ancient Roman temple that was built in her honor became the area in

which Roman coins were minted in 273 BCE. For hundreds of years, most of the coins in Rome

were produced at this mint. Even today, there are ancient Roman coins in existence from

thousands of years ago that bear Monēta’s image.

However, due to the looming uncertainties regarding money’s absolute history and

origin, there is also a commonly discussed theory that is seen as much less complex. While it

differs greatly from the hypothesis built around the classical Roman goddess Monēta, it is also a

plausible explanation as well. The Oxford English Dictionary alludes to the fact that the word
money may have simply originated from either Middle English or Anglo-Norman times as a

surname: “Thomas le Mony (1284–5).” Yet, there is relatively little information explaining as to

how the term money and its meaning could have come from a simple surname and spread on

such a vast scale across the world in the manner that it did. Much speculation has been brought

forward arguing that this surname may have been acquired by past relatives due to their

association with money, but there is no concrete evidence to prove this case; leaving many

critics in a split position on the matter. The theory behind the origin of the word money stemming

from ancient Rome has much more supporting evidence to back up its claims. This also makes

for an interesting history behind a term that is used so frequently in the world we live in today.

Next, we will discuss the history of the modern English term bonus. The Oxford English

Dictionary defines it as “a sum of money or other benefit paid or awarded over and above what

is normally due as remuneration.” Understandably, throughout this term’s history, it has been

connected with a positive connotation--especially in the world of business. This term is also a

great example of what we know as a loan translation; providing it with a fairly straightforward

history. It is a borrowing from the Latin word bonus, which means ‘good.’ It is also closely

related to another Latin ancestral word that we know as bonum, which means ‘good thing.’

However, it was not brought into modern English until sometime around the 18th century in

Western Europe. Since its adoption into the English language that was first seen recorded in the

late 1750s, the term took on a more narrowed meaning than its Latin ancestral roots originally

had in bonus and bonum. This was a pivotal transformation in the history of the term. This

occurrence tells us that bonus is a clear example of a loan translation that also experienced a

form of semantic shift known as specialization. This term has managed to maintain its earliest

recorded English meaning (not its original Latin meaning) over the past three centuries as we

still see it used frequently in the business world today.

That brings us to our findings around the term deposit. There are three distinct

definitions of this term that relate to business as we know it. The first and oldest definition, found
to be initially recorded in modern English around 1660, happens to be the most general

definition as well. That definition, found in The Oxford English Dictionary, defines it as

“something laid up in a place, or committed to the charge of a person, for safekeeping.” The two

other, more specialized definitions that are closely tied to the banking industry were first

recorded in the century subsequent and are as followed: “a sum of money placed or kept in a

bank account, usually to gain interest (1753).” And “something, usually a sum of money,

committed to another person’s charge as a pledge for the performance of some contract, in part

payment of a thing purchased (1737).” These three definitions are proof of semantic

specialization taking place throughout the term’s history, as banks and currencies began to

have greater impacts on the growing population.

The word deposit (as a noun) was borrowed into the English language as it originated

from the Latin word dēpositum meaning “something placed in a person’s charge or something

laid up in a place for safekeeping.” This definition is very similar to the oldest recorded English

meaning discussed earlier, allowing us to understand this term to be a calque. In addition, if we

take one step further, we can discover that the root of the word deposit is from the Latin word

depone meaning “to lay away, or aside, or put down.” Once again, by observing the history

behind this widely used term, it can be described in brief as a Latin calque that (shortly after

being borrowed into English) underwent numerous instances of semantic specialization as

society continued to advance economically.

Lastly, we come to our final term: transaction. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it

as “the adjustment of a dispute between parties by mutual concession.” In other words, it can be

viewed as an agreement or an arrangement made between two distinct parties, where a

completed settlement is performed. In the business world, we can observe transactions taking

place in all kinds of different scenarios. Just as was earlier discussed regarding the term

transfer, hundreds of millions of transactions take place every day as our population continues

to near eight billion people, and our economies continue to globalize. Electronic transactions
through the internet are also becoming increasingly popular, which displays the broadened

meanings and usages of the term since its earliest English recording around 1460. However,

the original definition of this term still applies to most of the common business transactions we

see today, with an expanded scope of mobility thanks to emerging technologies.

Transaction originates from the Latin word transigĕre, a participial stem to transact.

Transigĕre and transact share the same prefix as the word transaction: trans-. The Latin prefix

trans- ‘across, through’ makes it clear for us to see where the root of the term originates.

Unsurprisingly, transaction and transfer can both be traced to Latin roots, which happen to be

one in the same. This means it (like many of the others) was also borrowed into English from

Latin. It underwent a shift in meaning that narrowed it significantly, before undergoing widened

semantic change after its first recorded presence in the English language during the 15th

century. Throughout the past few decades especially, we have seen semantic expansion take

its course by widening its original meaning to expand past its prior physical limitations because

of electronic capabilities.

To conclude, thorough analyzations of the etymologies of these selected business words

offered each of us a much greater amount of substance and intrigue than we initially imagined.

Discovering the vibrant histories of these common terms has undoubtedly helped us better

understand both the current meanings that we know and experience today, and each of their

respective pasts as well. By conducting individual, in-depth research on each term, we have

found that uncovering each term’s etymological histories and the semantic changes that often

take place with them, has helped us all further our understanding on the origin of many

frequently used business words.

 Works Cited

Etymonline.com. (2019). transfer | Origin and meaning of transfer by Online Etymology

Dictionary. [online] Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/transfer. Accessed 17
March 2019.

Hock, H. and Joseph, B. (2009). Language history, language change, and language
relationship. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.241-302.

Homren, Wayne. “Juno Moneta, Goddess of Money.” coinbooks.org, E-Sylum, 16 Dec. 2012,
www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n52a20.html. Accessed 22 March 2019.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. “The American Heritage Dictionary Entry:
Transfer.” American Heritage Dictionary Entry: Transfer,
www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=transfer. Accessed 21 March 2019.

The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 2nd ed., 1989."bonus, n." OED Online,
Oxford University Press, www.oed.com/view/Entry/114178. Accessed 16 March 2019.

The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 2nd ed., 1989 "market, n." OED Online,
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The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 2nd ed., 1989. "money, n." OED Online,
Oxford University Press, www.oed.com/view/Entry/114178. Accessed 16 March 2019.

The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 2nd ed., 1989 "transfer, v." OED Online,
Oxford University Press, www.oed.com/view/Entry/204699. Accessed 14 March 2019.