Buys

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /baɪz/

Definitions

1. To engage in a financial transaction that results in obtaining ownership of goods or services in exchange for money
2. Obtains items or services by paying money in exchange for them
3. Acquires ownership of products or services through payment

Etymology: "Buys" is simply the third-person singular present of "buy", so the interesting history belongs to the verb itself. The "buy" family runs through the Germanic languages: Old Saxon had "buggian" and Gothic "bugjan", both meaning to buy, and the verb is related to Old Norse "byggja", which meant to build or settle. Scots still keeps "buy", and obsolete Dutch "beugen" carried the same sense, so the word's ancestry is firmly Germanic rather than borrowed from Latin or French. Its exact origin is unclear. Scholars have proposed a link to an older root behind the Old Norse and Germanic forms, but no single source has been established with confidence, so the earliest step remains uncertain. The spelling and pronunciation tell their own story. The "u" spelling came from the Southwest of England, while the modern sound, rhyming with "eye", came from the East Midlands, and the two regional forms eventually merged into the standard word we use today.

Synonyms: purchases, acquisitions, transactions, investments, procurements

Antonyms: sells, liquidates, divests, disposes, releases