Commerce, n.
Note: (Formerly accented on the second syllable.) Etym: [F. commerce, L. commercium; com- + merx, mercis, merchadise. See Merchant.]
1. The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; esp. the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic. The public becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of private men. Hume.
2. Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity. Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser. Macaulay.
3. Sexual intercourse. W. Montagu.
2 more senses
4. A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade. Hoyle. Chamber of commerce. See Chamber.
Syn. -- Trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Commerce ( or , v. i. [imp. & p. p. Commerced; p. pr. & vb. n. Commercing.]
1. To carry on trade; to traffic. [Obs.] Beware you commerce not with bankrupts. B. Jonson.
2. To hold intercourse; to commune. Milton. Commercing with himself. Tennyson. Musicians . . . taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven. Prof. Wilson.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for commerce; he lists it under business.
Where he writes about it:
Trade and commerce may be used as equivalents, but trade is capable of a more limited application; we speak of the trade of a village, the commerce of a nation. — from business
Barter is the direct exchange of commodities; business, trade, and commerce are chiefly transacted by means of money, bills of exchange, etc. — from business