▪ I. mart, n.1 dial.
(mɑːt)
Forms: [1 mearð, mærth, merð, 2 ? merthe], 8– mart.
[App. evolved in the mod.Eng. period by analysis of foulmart (foumart), where -mart is an altered form, due to absence of stress, of OE. mearð masc.: see marten, marter. Exc. in this compound, the OE. word did not survive beyond the 12th c., being superseded by marter.]
The marten.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 425 Furuncus, mearth. c 893 K. ælfred Oros. I. i. §18 Se byrdesta sceall ᵹyldan fiftyne mearðes fell. c 1200 Moral Ode (Trin. MS.) 366 Ne aquerne ne me[r]theschele [Egerton MS. martres cheole] ne beuer ne sabeline. 1713 Richardson in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 170 Foumart, quasi foul Mart, or stinking Mart, in opposition to the Martes which emit a musky Smell. 1801 W. Seward Yordes Cave 9 The Otter fierce, the badger and the mart. 1830 Blackw. Mag. XXVIII. 1 Wolves, hyenas, foxes, marts, and hares. 1885 Bazaar 30 Mar. 1249/3 Wanted, fresh caught badger,..sweet mart, foumart, and otter. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 3 Oct. 2/3 A Mart Hunt [in Westmorland]. |
▪ II. mart, n.2 Sc. and north.
(mɑːt)
Forms: 4–6 marte, 6 merte, (9 mert), 6–9 mairt, 4– mart.
[a. Gael. mart = Irish mart cow, ox.]
1. An ox or cow fattened for slaughter.
As ‘marts’ were usually killed about Martinmas as provision for the winter, the word popularly acquired an etymological association with Martinmas; cf. Martinmas beef.
| 1307–8 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 2 In ccxxviij martis emptis..non deductis coriis [etc.]. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 454 Martirs [? read martis] as it ware Þat husbond men had bouȝt. 1368 Priory of Finchale (Surtees) p. lxxx, Et de viij li. v s. receptis de xv marts de eodem manerio venditis. 1489 Sc. Acts Jas. IV (1814) II. 219/1 Þat all..martis mutounes poultre..may cum in to oure souerane lorde. 1520 Extracts Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887) 7 In byin of mertis, mutton, talk and skennis. 1573 in Reg. Privy Counc. Scot. II. 269, xxx martis of salt beif. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 25 They..caused to kill altogether threescore marts. 1798 D. Crawford Poems 16 (E.D.D.) He may next year get for his mart a highland cow. 1820 Scott Monast. i, Each family killed a mart, or fat bullock, in November. 1872 E. W. Robertson Hist. Ess. 135 In a pastoral state of society he [the ox] was of comparatively little use except as a mart—to be eaten. 1881 Gregor Folk-Lore N.E. Scot. 151 The ‘mairt’ or the pig, that was to be salted, must be killed when the moon was on the increase. |
b. fig.
| 1589 R. Bruce Serm. (1843) 166 As for the fed-marts of this world the Lord..has appointed them for slaughter. 1722 Ramsay Three Bonnets iii. 41 Get up, get up, ye lazy mart. |
† c. transf. A carcase, slain animal. Obs.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 842 [He] fand a tre..and syne on It slewit hym-self rycht to þe hart, and offerit to þe fend þat mart. a 1400 Sir Perc. 207 His modir hase gyffene hym that darte, Therwith made he many marte. |
† 2. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1689 R. Cox Hist. Irel. i. Expl. Index, Mart, a yearly Rent in Beef. |
▪ III. mart, n.4
(mɑːt)
Also 5–7 marte.
[a. Du. markt (formerly also written mart, and still commonly so pronounced): see market n.]
1. A periodical gathering of people for the purpose of buying and selling (in early use chiefly with reference to the Low Countries); a fair. Obs. or arch.
| 1437 Libel Eng. Policy in Pol. Songs (Rolls) II. 179 And wee to martis of Braban charged bene Wyth Englyssh clothe. 1483 Caxton Dialogues 19/1, I thinke to goo..To the feste of bruges, To the marte of andwarp, To the marte of berow. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 231 At y⊇ free passe marte of this said towne of Barowe last passed. 1530 Tindale Pract. Prelates H iv b, The Cardinall..lefte nothing vnprouided to bring the marte from Antwarpe to Cales. 1541 Act. 33 Hen. VIII, c. 34 They..shall..hold within the said borough two faires or martes euery yere. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. i. i. 18 Siracusian Marts and Fayres. 1631 T. Powell Tom All Trades (1876) 163 To benefit betweene the Mart and the Market. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 540 The Fair or Mart, usually kept in this Place, had been over some Time. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. x. 245 At the time of the mart, whilst the Manila galeon is in the port. 1788 Cowper Negro's Compl. 46 By our sufferings, since ye brought us To the man-degrading mart. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 309 After Gainsbrough mart in October, until the next mart at Easter, the people in these villages seldom thought of going anywhere. |
† b. spec. The German booksellers' fair, held at Easter, originally at Frankfurt, and afterwards at Leipzig. (Sometimes app. used transf. for the ‘publishing season’ in England.) Obs.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 177 Let him reade Buxdorfius and his Bibliotheca Rabbinica, printed this last Mart. 1620 E. Blount Horæ Subs. 42 Copied out of some absurd booke, printed the last Mart. c 1620 Wotton in Reliq. (1651) 472 We may expect some Pamphlet the next Mart from Ingolstat, or Collen. 1655 Digges Compl. Ambass. 273 By certain that returned from Frankfort Mart, I understand that one of the Gentlemen..died. |
2. A public place for buying and selling; a market-place, market hall, etc. Now poet. or rhetorical, exc. in the sense of ‘auction room’ (more fully auction-mart), and as applied by tradesmen to designate their shops, as in boot and shoe mart.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. i. ii. 74 My charge was but to fetch you from the Mart Home to your house. Ibid. iii. i. 12 You beat me at the Mart. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle iv. 1235 Our lawes for Mammons cursed golde Like as at open mart are bought and solde. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 295 The crowded mart, the cultivated plain. 1815 Scott Ld. of Isles vi. i, When breathless in the mart the couriers met. 1844 Longfellow Nuremburg 14 Fountains..standing in the common mart. 1863 Burton Bk. Hunter 60 The fashionable mart where all the thorough libraries in perfect condition went to be hammered off. 1882 P. Fitzgerald Recreat. Lit. Man (1883) 189 This [goblet] I had seen in the window of a mart. |
3. In wider sense: A city, region, or locality where things are bought or sold; an emporium.
| 1611 Bible Isa. xxiii. 3 She is a mart of nations. 1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade 283 Cadiz, Port St. Mary's, &c., which Places were the Mart of our Manufactures for the Indies. 1850 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. v. 228 They possessed no great cities, no great marts of industry and commerce. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. (1875) I. iv. 61 London, the mart of the merchants. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §5. 386 Antwerp and Bruges were..the general marts of the world. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. iii, O world,..Ile leave thee; farewell, mart of woe. 1762 Goldsm. Nash 21 To this great mart of every folly, sharpers from every country daily arrived. |
† 4. Buying and selling; traffic; bargaining. Also, a bargain. Phr. to make a (or one's) mart. Obs.
| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 716 The lowe Countries, where the Englishe men for the most part, made their martes. 1575 Gascoigne Dan Barthol., Posies Flowers 69 Then mighte you see howe fansie fedde his minde, Then all alone he mused on his marte. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 37 They..maken a Mart of their good name. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 329 Now I play a marchants part, And venture madly on a desperate Mart. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xii. §5 Christ could not suffer that the temple should serue for a place of Mart. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie i. ii, Vengeance pricks me on, When mart is made of faire Religion. a 1618 Sylvester Maidens Blush 464 Therefore forthwith one to them let us send, The mart to offer, and the price to make, As of a Slave. 1637 R. Humfrey tr. St. Ambrose i. 118 Places of mart where hee may best vent them. |
† 5. attrib., as in mart-day, mart-time, mart-town.
| 1641 Hinde J. Bruen xxxii. 102 That he might..buy Wine and Milk without money,..upon such of the Lords *Mart and Market dayes. |
| 1624 Massinger Renegado i. i, This *Mart time Wee are allowde free trading. |
| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Corinthians 1 Corinthe..was..the moste famous, and richest *marte towne of all Asia. 1647 Trapp Comm. 1 Cor. v. 9 It [i.e. Corinth] was..a most filthy Mart-town of abominable lusts. 1736 Drake Eboracum i. vii. 227 That York was formerly the chief emporium, place of trade, or mart-town in the north of England is certain. 1761 London & Environs IV. 6 During the Saxon heptarchy, London was..as we are told by Bede, a princely mart-town. |
▪ IV. † mart, n.5 Obs.
[Alteration of marque1 app. by association with mart n.4 Cf. contra-, contre-, countermart.]
= marque1; in phr. letters (scripts, writ) of mart.
| 1587 Greene Penelopes Web Wks. (Grosart) V. 197 Abradus the great Macedonian Pirat thought euery one had a letter of mart that bare sayles in y⊇ Ocean. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxiv. (1612) 277 With letters then of credence for himselfe, and marte for them, He puts to Sea for England. a 1612 Harington Epigr. ii. xxx. (1618) E 7, You'le spoile the Spaniards, by your writ of Mart. 1627 Drayton Batt. Agincourt 10 All men of Warre with scripts of Mart that went. 1726 J. Ker Mem. 153 Letters of Mart were issued to Sundry People, who all went to the East-Indies. |
b. attrib., as in letter(s of mart man, mart ship.
| 1695 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 543 Three letters of mart ships are ordered for the West Indies. 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4071/3 The Good Alliance,..being taken by a Letter of Mart-Man belonging to this Port. 1753 N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat p. xv, Thus much by way of Preface to this Translation; after which I shall send it into the World as a Letter of Mart Ship,..hoping that it may meet with some Prize of Approbation. |
▪ V. † mart, v. Obs.
(mɑːt)
[f. mart n.4; cf. Du., G. markten (G. dial. marten).]
1. intr. To do business at a mart; hence, to chaffer, bargain.
| 1553 Req. True-hearted Eng. 5 Our marchauntes do by martyng in Antwarp spende yerely [etc.]. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. ii. Imposture 349 She would, she should not; glad, sad; coms and goes: And long she marts about a Match of Woes. 1602 W. Fulbecke Pandectes 72 The Athenians, who had vtterlie secluded them from their Hauens, and from marting with them. 1628 Gaule Pract. Theory (1629) 181 Judas is busie marting and chaffering among them. |
2. trans. To make merchandise of, to traffic in. Also with out.
| 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxix, Let Pesantes marte their marriages, and thriue at peraduenture. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. (Q.) i. i. 172, I had thought my son could not have straied, So farre from iudgement, as to mart himselfe Thus cheapely, (in the open trade of scorne). 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iv. iii. 11 To sell, and Mart your Offices for Gold To Vndeseruers. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. xxvi, Hereupon the astrologers doe mart or vent the effects of the heavens and the stars, &c. 1788 A. Seward Lett. (1811) II. 6 Reviewers may be venal without directly marting out their decisions for money. |
Hence † ˈmarting vbl. n.
| 1553 [see 1]. 1608 Bp. Hall Epist. i. i, Marting of pardons. |