mercantile

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Italic *merks Latin merx Latin mercor Latin mercantem Italian mercante Latin -īlemder. Italian -ile Italian mercantilebor. French mercantilebor. English mercantile Borrowed from French mercantile, from Italian mercantile, from mercante (“merchant”), from Latin mercāns (“trading”).

1. Concerned with the exchange of goods for profit.

   “No sign was over his door; in fact—as with old banks and mercantile houses—advertising in any shape was scorned, and it would have been felt as beneath his dignity to paint, for the benefit of strangers, the name of an establishment the trade of which came solely by connection based on personal respect.”

2. Of or relating to mercantilism.