merx

Latin

Alternative forms

marca, mercha, marcha

Etymology

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.^[1]

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”).^[2]
Matasović instead derives this word from a root *merǵ- (“to divide”), whence also margō (“border”), Proto-Celtic *mrogis, Proto-Germanic *markō, and Persian (marz),^[3] the verbal sense of which survives in Hittite 𒈥𒀝𒍣 (mar-ak-zi /⁠marktsi⁠/, “to cut up, separate, divide, distribute”).^[4] The connection to Hittite was in fact already suggested by Puhvel (2004).^[5] This root *merǵ- may itself be an extension of *mer- (“to divide, apportion, allot”), for which see Latin mereō.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /merks/, [mɛrks̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /merks/, [mɛrks]

Noun

merx f (genitive mercis); third declension

merchandise, commodity
goods, wares

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	merx	mercēs
genitive	mercis	mercium
dative	mercī	mercibus
accusative	mercem	mercēs mercīs
ablative	merce	mercibus
vocative	merx	mercēs

Derived terms

Descendants

Basque: merke
Catalan: esmerçar
Italian: merce
Portuguese: merce
Sicilian: merci

References

^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “merx, -cis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 376
^ Nikolaev, Alexander (2021) “Etyma Graeca II”, in Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology, number 25, Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 953–976
^ Matasović, Ranko (2022 June 30) “Four Latin Etymologies: volgus, laedo, paedor, merx”, in Latina et Graeca‎^[1], volume 2, number 41, →ISSN, retrieved September 18, 2022, pages 7–16
^ Kloekhorst, Alwin (2008) “mārk-ⁱ / mark-”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 5), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 558–559
^ Puhvel, Jaan (2004) Hittite Etymological Dictionary (Trends in linguistics. Documentation; 22), volume 6, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, page 74