Word of the Week: kupovat/koupit – 'to buy'

A lowly tradesman in Roman times was a caupō, and to trade or barter was to caupōnārī. From either the noun or the verb, the modern Germanic languages of Swedish, Dutch and German get their words for ‘to buy’: köpa, kopen and kaufen. What’s more, the capital of Denmark is the related ‘merchant-harbour’, Copenhagen.

From one of the Germanic languages, the Slavic family also gets its verbs for ‘to buy’. In Czech, these are koupit (for completed buying) and kupovat (for ongoing buying).

The English equivalent (buy) is unsurprisingly unconnected to this word family, but centuries ago, Old English did have the related word ceap, meaning ‘trade’ or ‘bargain’. Through good deals at low prices, this has given English its adjective cheap!