bargain
Definitions
General English
- verb to discuss the terms of an agreement or sale
Accounting
- verb to try to reach agreement about something, especially a price, usually with each person or group involved putting forward suggestions or offers which are discussed until a compromise is arrived at
Banking
- noun a sale and purchase of one lot of shares on the Stock Exchange
Law
- noun an agreement between two people or groups to do something
- verb to discuss something with someone in order to make an improvement for yourself
Travel
- noun something bought more cheaply than usual
Origin & History of “bargain”
Bargain appears to be distantly related to borrow. Its immediate source was Old French bargaignier ‘haggle’, but this was probably borrowed from Germanic *borganjan, a derivative of *borgun (from which ultimately we get borrow). The sense development may have been as follows: originally ‘look after, protect’ (the related Germanic *burg- produced English borough, which to begin with meant ‘fortress’, and bury); then ‘take on loan, borrow’; then ‘take or give’; and hence ‘trade, haggle, bargain’.
