trade: [14] Trade originally meant ‘way, track’. Not until the 16th century did the modern sense ‘buying and selling’ emerge, via ‘regular path followed by someone’ and ‘business pursued by someone’. Etymologically, it amounts to a ‘trodden’ path; for it was borrowed from Middle Low German trade ‘track’, which goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *trad-, *tred-, source also of English tread and trot. => tread, trot
trade (n.)
late 14c., "path, track, course of action," introduced by the Hanse merchants, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German trade "track, course" (probably originally of a ship), cognate with Old English tredan (see tread (v.)).
Sense of "one's habitual business" (1540s) developed from the notion of "way, course, manner of life" (mid-15c.); sense of "buying and selling, exchange of commodities" is from 1550s. Meaning "act of trading" is from 1829. Trade-name is from 1821; trade-route is from 1873; trade-war is from 1899. Trade union is attested from 1831. Trade wind (1640s) has nothing to do with commerce, but preserves the obsolete sense of "in a habitual or regular course."
trade (v.)
1540s, "to tread a path," from trade (n.). Meaning "to occupy oneself (in something)" is recorded from c. 1600. Meaning "to barter" is by 1793. The U.S. sports team sense of "to exchange one player for another" is attested from 1899. Related: Traded; trading. To trade down is attested from 1942; trade up from 1959. Trade places "exchange situations" is from 1917. Trading post is recorded from 1796. Trading stamp, given by merchants and exchangeable for goods, is from 1897.
双语例句
1. The nature of the polymer is currently a trade secret.
这一聚合物的性质目前是个商业机密。
来自柯林斯例句
2. They issue a fixed number of shares that trade publicly.
他们发行一定数量的可公开交易的股票。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Anita Loos was in many respects untypical of the screenwriting trade.
在许多方面，安妮塔·卢斯看着都不像是从事剧本创作这一行的。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Its trade and industrial policies should be used more ambitiously.
其贸易和工业政策的适用范围应该扩大。
来自柯林斯例句
5. He passed the letters to the Department of Trade and Industry.
