commodity

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

commodity

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• commoditie (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English commoditee, from Anglo-Norman commoditee, from Latin commoditās.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɑdəti/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɒdəti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

commodity (countable and uncountable, plural commodities)

1. (business) Anything movable (a good) that is bought and sold. [from 15th c.]
   • 1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, chapter 6, in The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 72:

     It is with the help of the commodity concept that the mechanism of the market is geared to the various elements of industrial life. Commodities are here empirically defined as objects produced for sale on the market; […] . But labor, land, and money are obviously not commodities; the postulate that anything that is bought and sold must have been produced for sale is emphatically untrue in regard to them.

   • 1995, James G. Carrier, Gifts and Commodities: Exchange and Western Capitalism Since 1700, page 122:

     If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity.

   • 2001, Rachel Pain, Introducing Social Geographies, page 26:

     In human geography "commodities" usually refers to goods and services which are bought and sold. The simplest commodities are those produced by the production system just before they are sold.

   • 2005, William Leiss, Botterill, Jacki, Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace‎, page 307:

     Referring to the work of Bourdieu, Zukin (2004,38) notes that shopping is much more than the purchase of commodities.

   • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 48:

     For mineral trains, he adds little other than pointing out the need to expand single-commodity trains and to end the use of mixed-commodity services that required extensive marshalling.

2. Something useful or valuable. [from 15th c.]
   • 2008 January 14, Somerset County Gazette:

     And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time.

3. (economics) Raw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.

   The price of crude oil is determined in continuous trading between professional players in World's many commodities exchanges.

4. (marketing) Undifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin, as distinguished from branded products.

   Although they were once in the forefront of consumer electronics, the calculators have become a mere commodity.

5. (Marxism) Anything which has both a use value and an exchange value.
6. (obsolete) Convenience; usefulness, suitability. [15th–19th c.]
7. (obsolete) Self-interest; personal convenience or advantage. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Shall we employ the intelligence Heaven hath bestowed upon us for our greatest good, to our ruine? repugning natures desseign and the universal order and vicissitude of things, which implieth that every man should use his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie?

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     they commonly respect their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their action […].

Derived terms

• biocommodity
• commodify
• commoditize
• commodity currency
• commodity diplomacy
• commodity exchange
• commodity fetishism
• commodityism
• commodity market
• commodity meat
• commodity money
• cryptocommodity
• discommodity
• multicommodity

 

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: комодити (komoditi)
• → Czech: komodita
• → Indonesian: komoditas
• → Japanese: コモディティ (komoditi)
• → French: commodité
• → Portuguese: comódite
• → Russian: коммодити (kommoditi), коммодитиз (kommoditiz)
• → Slovak: komodita

Translations

anything movable traded

Albanian: mall (sq) m Arabic: بِضَاعَة f (biḍāʕa), بَضَائِع f pl (baḍāʔiʕ), سِلْعَة f (silʕa), سِلَع pl (silaʕ), مَتَاع m (matāʕ) Armenian: ապրանք (hy) (aprankʻ) Azerbaijani: mal (az), əmtəə (formal) Bashkir: тауар (tawar) Belarusian: тава́р (be) m (tavár), праду́кт (be) m (pradúkt) Bengali: পণ্য (bn) (ponno) Bulgarian: сто́ка (bg) f (stóka), това́р (bg) m (továr) Burmese: ကုန် (my) (kun), ကုန်ပစ္စည်း (my) (kunpaccany:) Catalan: mercaderia (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 商品 (zh) (shāngpǐn), 貨物／货物 (zh) (huòwù), 產品／产品 (zh) (chǎnpǐn), 製品／制品 (zh) (zhìpǐn) Chuvash: тавар (tavar) Czech: zboží (cs) n, produkt (cs) m Danish: handelsvare c, vare (da) c Dutch: waar (nl) f, goederen (nl) n pl Esperanto: varo (eo) Estonian: kaup (et) Finnish: hyödyke (fi), tavara (fi), kauppatavara (fi) French: produit (fr) m, bien (fr) m, marchandise (fr) f Georgian: საქონელი (ka) (sakoneli) German: Ware (de) f, Gut (de) n, Handelsgut (de) n, Handelsware (de) f Greek: εμπόρευμα (el) n (empórevma), αγαθά (el) n (agathá) Ancient: φορτία n pl (phortía) Hebrew: סְחוֹרָה (he) f (s'khorá) Hindi: वस्तु (hi) f (vastu), जिंस (hi) f (jins), माल (hi) m (māl), सामान (hi) m (sāmān), पण्य (hi) m (paṇya) Hungarian: áru (hu), árucikk (hu), portéka (hu) (dated) Icelandic: vara (is) f, vörur (is) f pl Ido: komercajo (io), varo (io) Indonesian: barang (id), barang-barang (id) Irish: earra m or f Italian: prodotto (it) m, bene (it) m, merce (it) f Japanese: 商品 (ja) (しょうひん, shōhin), 品 (ja) (しな, shina), 品物 (ja) (しなもの, shinamono), 物品 (ja) (ぶっぴん, buppin), 財 (ja) (ざい, zai), 商材 (しょうざい, shōzai) Kazakh: тауар (tauar) Khmer: ទំនិញ (km) (tumnɨñ), អីវ៉ាន់ (km) (ʼəyvan) Korean: 상품(商品) (ko) (sangpum) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: kelûpel (ku) Kyrgyz: товар (ky) (tovar) Lao: ສິນຄ້າ (sin khā), ໂພຄະພັນ (phō kha phan), ເຂົ້າຂອງ (khao khǭng), ສິນ (sin) Latin: merx (la) f Latvian: prece (lv) f Lithuanian: prẽkė (lt) f Macedonian: стока (mk) f (stoka) Malay: barang (ms), barangan (ms) Maori: taongahoko Mongolian: Cyrillic: бараа (mn) (baraa), таваар (mn) (tavaar) Norwegian: Bokmål: vare (no) m or f, gods (no) n Old East Slavic: товаръ m (tovarŭ) Pashto: متاع f (matã') Persian: متاع (fa) (matâ'), اجناس (fa) pl (ajnâs), مال (fa) (mâl), کالا (fa) (kâlâ), جنس (fa) (jens) Polish: towar (pl) m, dobro (pl) n Portuguese: comodidade (pt) f, mercadoria (pt) f, produto (pt) m, bem (pt) m, bem de consumo m, artigo de consumo m Romanian: marfă (ro) f, articol de consum n, obiect de uz n Russian: това́р (ru) m (továr), проду́кт (ru) m (prodúkt), добро́ (ru) n (dobró), бла́го (ru) n (blágo) Scottish Gaelic: bathar m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ро̏ба f, до̀бро n Roman: rȍba (sh) f, dòbro (sh) n Slovak: tovar m Slovene: blago n Southern Altai: табар (tabar) Spanish: bien (es) m, artículo de consumo (es) m Swedish: handelsvara (sv), vara (sv) n, gods (sv) n Tagalog: kalakal Tajik: мол (mol) Tatar: тауар (tawar) Thai: สินค้า (th) (sǐn-káa), โภคภัณฑ์ (th) (pôok-ká-pan) Turkish: mal (tr), emtia (tr), eşya (tr) Turkmen: haryt, harytlar pl Ukrainian: това́р (uk) m (továr), проду́кт m (prodúkt) Urdu: مال (māl), سامان m (sāmān) Uyghur: تاۋار (tawar), مال (mal) Uzbek: tovar (uz), mol (uz) Vietnamese: thương phẩm (vi), hàng hoá (vi) Yakut: табаар (tabaar) Yiddish: סכוירע f (skhoyre), סחורה f (skhoyre)

something useful

Finnish: avu (fi), hyödyke (fi) German: Gut (de) n Hebrew: מְצְרָךְ (he) m (mitzrách) Italian: bene (it) m Portuguese: comodidade (pt) f, bem (pt) m Russian: добро́ (ru) n (dobró) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: до̀бро n Roman: dòbro (sh) n

primary product as object of trade

Czech: zboží (cs) n Dutch: grondstof (nl) m, verbruiksgoed n, Finnish: raaka-aine (fi), hyödyke (fi) German: Rohstoff (de) m, Verbrauchsgut n, Konsumware (de) f Indonesian: komoditas (id) Italian: materia prima (it) f Malay: komoditi Portuguese: commodity (pt) f, matéria-prima (pt) f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ро̏ба f Roman: rȍba (sh) f Spanish: materia prima f Tagalog: kalakal

undifferentiated good

Finnish: massahyödyke French: bien de consommation courante m German: Billigware f, Massenware f Portuguese: bem de consumo f, artigo de consumo m Romanian: bun de consum

Portuguese

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

commodity

Wikipedia ^pt

Alternative forms

• comódite

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English commodity.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /koˈmɔ.d͡ʒi.t͡ʃi/, /kɔˈmɔ.d͡ʒi.t͡ʃi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /koˈmɔ.d͡ʒi.t͡ʃi/, /kɔˈmɔ.d͡ʒi.t͡ʃi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /koˈmɔ.d͡ʒi.te/, /kɔˈmɔ.d͡ʒi.te/

Noun

commodity f (plural commodities or commoditys)

1. commodity

Spanish

Noun

commodity m (plural commoditys)

1. commodity