n.
‘trade, merchandise’
(Modern English chaffer)ME chaffer seems to represent a compound of OE cēap ‘purchase, sale, traffic, bargain, gain’ (etc.) (cp. OIcel kaup, OFris kāp, OS kōp, OHG kouf, ultimately < Lat caupō ‘tradesman’) + OE faru ‘action of going, state of movement, passing to and fro; journey, voyage; way of life, course of conduct; body of people; household, livestock, chattels; freight’ (DOE; cp. OIcel fǫr, OFris fere, MDu vare, MHG var < PGmc *farō). Most authorities accept it as a native construct (so OED, MED, Kullnick 1902: 3) and cite as cognate the nearest analogue, which is in ON, cp. OIcel kaupfǫr ‘trading journey’ (and cp. similarly OIcel kaupferð, Ger Kauffahrt, LG kopfart). It is sometimes implied that the English compound might be modelled on the Norse one (with its meaning transferred from the trading venture to the goods being traded) (so perhaps TGD, GDS, Magoun 1928: 79), but there is no compelling reason to adduce ON input, especially as some of the senses attested for OE faru (DOE 3d ‘household / livestock / chattels of someone’ and 4 ‘freight; whatever is carried by a vehicle on a journey’) and ME fāre (see MED senses (8) and (9), esp. (8b) fare-cart ‘?a cart used for merchandise’) come much closer to the meaning of the second element of chaffer than do the senses known for ON fǫr (see also Hoad 1985: 142–3, Dance 2003: 390 n.12.)
PGmc Ancestor
*kaupaz + *farō
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
kaupfǫr ‘trading journey’
(ONP kaup-fǫr (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
OE Cognate
cp. cēap ‘purchase, sale, traffic, bargain, gain’ (etc.); faru ‘action of going, state of movement, passing to and fro; journey, voyage; way of life, course of conduct; body of people; household, livestock, chattels; freight’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CCC4
First recorded in the AB group, and widespread from the early 13c.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 1647, 1939
On the sense at Gaw 1647 see further Wright 1935: 168