mercantile Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective of or relating to the economic system of mercantilism
    • mercantile theories
    • mercantile system
  2. adjective satellite profit oriented
    moneymaking; mercenary.
    • a commercial book
    • preached a mercantile and militant patriotism"- John Buchan
    • a mercenary enterprise
    • a moneymaking business
  3. adjective satellite relating to or characteristic of trade or traders
    • the mercantile North was forging ahead"- Van Wyck Brooks

WordNet

Mer"can*tile adjective
Etymology
F. mercantile, It. mercantile, fr. L. mercans, -antis, p. pr. of mercari to traffic. See Merchant.
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to merchants, or the business of merchants; having to do with trade, or the buying and selling of commodities; commercial.
    The expedition of the Argonauts was partly mercantile, partly military. Arbuthnot.
    McElrath. Syn. -- Mercantile, Commercial. Commercial is the wider term, being sometimes used to embrace mercantile. In their stricter use, commercial relates to the shipping, freighting, forwarding, and other business connected with the commerce of a country (whether external or internal), that is, the exchange of commodities; while mercantile applies to the sale of merchandise and goods when brought to market. As the two employments are to some extent intermingled, the two words are often interchanged.

Webster 1913