Etymograph

English

arbitrage

Arbitrage comes from French arbitrage ‘arbitration’, and goes back to Latin arbiter.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEarbiter‘arbitrator, arbiter’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEarbitroras arbitrārī‘to judge, arbitrate’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentarbitrer‘to arbitrate’
  4. French, derivedc. 1600–presentarbitrage‘arbitration’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1961arbitrage

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEarbiter‘arbitrator, arbiter’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEarbitroras arbitrārī‘to judge, arbitrate’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentarbitrer‘to arbitrate’
  4. French, derivedc. 1600–presentarbitrage‘arbitration’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1961arbitrage

Earliest quotation: 1961, Maurece Schiller, Fortunes in Special Situations in the Stock Market: “He has arbitraged by purchasing in one market and…”

The story

An unadapted borrowing from French arbitrage, from arbitrer (‘to arbitrate’); see arbitrate.

Every English word from Latin arbiter

Today it means

noun A market activity in which a security, commodity, currency or other tradable item is bought in one market and sold simultaneously in another, in order to profit from price differences between the markets.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin arbiter / arbitrage

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