commodity

• commoditie (archaic)

From Middle English commoditee, from Anglo-Norman commoditee, from Latin commoditās.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɑdəti/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈmɒdəti/

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commodity (countable and uncountable, plural commodities)

1. Anything movable (a good) that is bought and sold. [from 15th c.]
   • 1957 [1944], Karl Polanyi, chapter 6, in The Great Transformation, Beacon Press: Boston, page 72:

     It is with the help of the commodity concept that the mechanism of the market is geared to the various elements of industrial life. Commodities are here empirically defined as objects produced for sale on the market; […] . But labor, land, and money are obviously not commodities; the postulate that anything that is bought and sold must have been produced for sale is emphatically untrue in regard to them.

   • 1995, James G. Carrier, Gifts and Commodities: Exchange and Western Capitalism Since 1700, p.122

     If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity.

   • 2001, Rachel Pain, Introducing Social Geographies, p.26

     In human geography "commodities" usually refers to goods and services which are bought and sold. The simplest commodities are those produced by the production system just before they are sold.

   • 2005, William Leiss, Botterill, Jacki, Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, p.307

     Referring to the work of Bourdieu, Zukin (2004,38) notes that shopping is much more than the purchase of commodities

2. Something useful or valuable. [from 15th c.]
   • 2008, Jan. 14th, Somerset County Gazette

     And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time.

3. (economics) Raw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.

   The price of crude oil is determined in continuous trading between professional players in World's many commodities exchanges.

4. (marketing) Undifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin, as distinguished from branded products.

   Although they were once in the forefront of consumer electronics, the calculators have become a mere commodity.

5. (Marxism) Anything which has both a use-value and an exchange-value.
6. (obsolete) Convenience; usefulness, suitability. [15th–19th c.]
7. (obsolete) Self-interest; personal convenience or advantage. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     Shall we employ the intelligence Heaven hath bestowed upon us for our greatest good, to our ruine? repugning natures desseign and the universal order and vicissitude of things, which implieth that every man should use his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie?

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:

     they commonly respect their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their action […].

commodity m (plural commoditys)

1. commodity