Businesses

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbɪz.nɪ.sɪz/

Definitions

1. Entities that engage in the provision or exchange of goods and services with the aim of generating profit for their owners
2. Organizations involved in selling products or services to customers for profit
3. Groups or companies that operate to offer goods or services with the goal of earning money

Etymology: The plural "businesses" is simply the plural of "business," which has a surprisingly literal beginning: Old English "bisiġnes" meant little more than "busyness," the state of being occupied. The word was built from "busy" and the suffix "-ness," the same ending that turns "happy" into "happiness." For centuries the sense stayed close to that root, so a person could be said to be in business in the sense of being hard at work on something, and "business" referred to a task or concern rather than a commercial enterprise. The shift toward trade came gradually as Middle English spellings like "busines" and "bisynes" took hold and the word began to name a person's particular affairs, then their dealings in commerce. Today's sense of a company selling goods or services grew out of that broader idea of occupied affairs. "Busyness" survives as a doublet, a separate descendant of the same Old English root that kept the sense of being busy.

Synonyms: companies, firms, enterprises, corporations, establishments