mercantile Hear it!

mercantile Definition

mer·can·tile (mʉr′kən tīl′, -til, -tēl′)

adjective

  1. of or characteristic of merchants or trade; commercial
  2. of mercantilism

Etymology: Fr < It < mercante, merchant < L mercans, prp. of mercari: see merchant

mercantile Synonyms

mercantile

modif.

trading, business, marketing; see commercial 1, industrial.

mercantile Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • capitalism: The impersonal order of the counting house in the new mercantile capitalism exemplified a renewed concentration on abstract measurement.
  • marine: They represented some of the finest ships of the mercantile marine.
  • spirit: But now the mercantile spirit has shown its profound malevolence.
  • city: By way of recompense, Philip helped him to subdue the Greek mercantile cities in his territory.
  • class: In addition to these tribal heads members of the mercantile class were granted control over large estates to farm.

Modifying Another Word

  • increasingly: During the Taurus phase, and after a slow start, increasingly mercantile, urban and imperialistic civilisations arose.
mercantile Quotes

Look at the Irish! Theyare the cleverest propagandists extant, and managed to persuade most people that they were a brave, generous, humorous, talented, warm- hearted race, cruelly yoked to a dull mercantile England, when,God knows, they were exactly the opposite.

—Buchan,John, 1st BaronTweedsmuir