merchandise

Etymology 1

From Middle English marchaundise (“commerce, trading; buying, purchasing; business transaction, bargain, deal; agreement; trade, vocation; merchandise, goods, wares; possessions, wealth; reward; ability or right to carry on business; market; communication between God and humans; sale of indulgences; simony; paid advocate or orator (?)”), from Anglo-Norman marchaundise and Old French marcheandise (modern French marchandise), from Old French marcheant (“seller, vendor”) (ultimately from Latin mercātus (“buying and selling, trade, traffic; market; marketplace”), possibly originally Etruscan) + -ise (suffix forming feminine nouns, often denoting a quality or state). The English word is analysable as merchant + -ise.

noun

1. (uncountable) Goods which are or were offered or intended for sale.
   Good business depends on having good merchandise.
   The custom of giving away merchandise for advertising purposes is greatly on the increase in this country. More goods are now distributed in one year as advertising novelties and as premiums than in a decade 10 or 15 years ago. 1908, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1, page 29
   It has been stated that Fred Beers is giving free merchandise to this store and I believe you will find that one of your inspectors obtained a bottle of milk free when he purchased some groceries on Thursday Nov. 23rd [1933]. 1936, Cecil Day Lewis, The Whispering Roots, Jonathan Cape, page 175
2. (uncountable) Commercial goods connected (branded) with an entity such as a team, band, company, charity, work of fiction, festival, or meme. (Commonly shortened to merch.)
3. (countable, archaic) A commodity offered for sale; an article of commerce; a kind of merchandise.
   Would we then see in what sence heavenly things may be called a merchandise, and in what sence not; this is easy to him that will understand. 1622, John Wing (Minister of the English congregation at Flushing.), The Best Merchandise, Or a Cleare Discovery of the Evident Difference, and Admirable Advantage, Between Our Traffike with God for the True Treasure and with Men for Temporall Commodity, page 9
   What security was there that she might not be a very unfit person, one who had made a merchandise of her charms, the child itself being the offspring of some accidental connexion? June 18, 1822, Great Britain. Parliament, “Marriage Act Amendment Bill”, in The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, published 1823, page 1135
   Who feeds a flock, and makes not a merchandise of the sheep? 1839, The holy bible containing the old and the new testaments
4. (uncountable, archaic) The act or business of trading; trade; traffic.

Etymology 2

From Middle English marchaundisen (“to engage in commerce, traffic”), from marchaundise (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).

verb

1. (intransitive, archaic) To engage in trade; to carry on commerce.
2. (intransitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of goods, as by display and arrangement of goods.
   He started his career merchandising in a small clothing store chain.
3. (transitive, archaic) To engage in the trade of.
4. (transitive) To engage in in-store promotion of the sale of.
   He got hired to merchandise some new sporting goods lines.
5. (transitive) To promote as if for sale.
   The record companies don't get as good a return on merchandising artists under contract.