English
purchase
Purchase comes from Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer ‘to seek to obtain’, from pur- + chacier ‘to chase’.
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400purchacer‘to seek to obtain’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500purchasen
- Englishearliest quotation 1579purchase
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400purchacer‘to seek to obtain’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500purchasen
- Englishearliest quotation 1579purchase
Earliest quotation: 1579, Immeritô pseudonym; Edmund Spenser, May. Ægloga Quinta.: “that loves the thing he cannot purchase”.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pro- ‘toward, forward’
through Proto-Italic *pro-
Today it means
noun The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Anglo-Norman purchacer / purchase