Chaffare

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To haggle persistently over the terms or price of a transaction in a petty or tiresome manner
2. To engage in tedious negotiation or dispute about cost, payment, or other commercial details
3. To wrangle back and forth over the price or conditions of a sale or purchase

Etymology: "Chaffare" is an old English word for trade, merchandise, or buying and selling, and it comes from Old English "ceapfaru," a compound of "ceap," meaning barter, trade, or price, and "faru," meaning a going or journey. In other words, it originally described the journey undertaken to do business, a market trip. The first part, "ceap," is the more surprising ancestor. In Old English it meant a bargain or a price, not a low one. Its descendant "cheap" kept that sense for centuries: "good cheap" meant a good bargain, and "Cheapside" in London was named for the market street there. The sense of "inexpensive" developed later in Middle English. "Chapman," an old word for a peddler or merchant, shares the same root. "Chaffare" itself fell out of use, but its root survives in these words.

Synonyms: trade, commerce, barter