Dicker

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈdɪkə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. To participate in negotiations involving offers and counteroffers while attempting to reach a mutually agreeable deal
2. To transact business through a process of bargaining, which often includes haggling over prices
3. To negotiate the terms of a sale or agreement through back-and-forth discussion about price or conditions

Etymology: The verb "dicker" to haggle has a surprisingly numerical past. It descends from a Middle English noun "diker," a measure of ten, which in turn came from Late Latin "dacra," itself from Latin "decuria," a group of ten, built on "decem," the Latin for ten. Medieval traders used the unit for counting goods in bulk, and a "dicker" of hides, for instance, was a set of ten. The link between counting in tens and bargaining is not spelled out by the older record, but the sense shift is easy to follow: a trade involving a fixed lot of goods was negotiated as a whole, so dealing in dickers became dealing in bundles, and dealing became bargaining. Few English speakers today would connect the verb to the number ten, yet the word's roots remain in the counting of goods.

Synonyms: haggle, negotiate

Antonyms: agree, concur