purchase

Etymology

From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”).

noun

1. The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
   They offer a free hamburger with the purchase of a drink.
2. That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
3. That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
   He was pleased with his latest purchase.
   [Said by a shopkeeper] I really don't think you can carry any more purchases. You can come again after you sell something, or you can simply discard an item to lighten your load. Or, you might want to sell the things you don't need here! 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
4. (obsolete) The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
5. A price paid for a house or estate, etc. equal to the amount of the rent or income during the stated number of years.
   Suppose a freehold house to be worth 20 years’ purchase […] 1848, The Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Lords
6. (uncountable, also figurative) Any mechanical hold or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle or capstan.
   It is hard to get purchase on a nail without a pry bar or hammer.
   The problem is that the model of individual responsibility assumed by most versions of ethics have little purchase on the behavior of Capital or corporations. 2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 8, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, pages 66–67
7. The apparatus, tackle or device by which such mechanical advantage is gained and (in nautical terminology) the ratio of such a device, like a pulley, or block and tackle.
8. (climbing, uncountable) The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.
   At first, he was climbing down, testing for purchase with his feet. But soon, as the entire section of ground rotated, he was lifted into the air, and up and down flipped around. 2015, Hao Jingfang, “Folding Beijing”, in Ken Liu, transl., Uncanny Magazine, number 2
9. (law, dated) Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.

verb

1. To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.
   to purchase land, to purchase a house
2. To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
   to purchase favor with flattery
4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
5. To apply to (anything) a device for obtaining a mechanical advantage; to get a purchase upon, or apply a purchase to; to raise or move by mechanical means.
   to purchase a cannon
6. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
   1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Froissart's Chronicles Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage.
7. To constitute the buying power for a purchase, have a trading value.
   Many aristocratic refugees' portable treasures purchased their safe passage and comfortable exile during the revolution.