市場上的貨
字根裡「按尺度計量」的那一半：可以秤、可以定價、可以大量買賣的原物料。
traded raw good · noun · C1
A basic product that is bought and sold, especially farm goods, metal, or fuel, often in large amounts.
大宗商品
核心畫面
One way to hold it: a thing measured out and — a ton of wheat, a barrel of oil. Not this particular , but wheat-as-quantity, something you can weigh, price and exchange.
一樣被「秤斤論兩、可以拿去交換」的東西——一噸小麥、一桶原油、一批銅。重點不是某一袋特定的米，而是米「作為可計量、可…更多收起
一樣被「秤斤論兩、可以拿去交換」的東西——一噸小麥、一桶原油、一批銅。重點不是某一袋特定的米，而是米「作為可計量、可交易的量」。這個字帶著一種市場的眼光：把東西看成有價格、有供需、可以買賣的單位。也因為看的是「值不值得爭取」，同樣的眼光後來被借去看時間、信任這些根本不在市場上賣的東西。From the word’s history
From Latin commoditas 'fitness, convenience, advantage', from commodus 'suitable, convenient' (com- 'with' + modus 'measure'). The 'measure' inside modus survives in the modern sense of goods sold by measured quantity.
來自拉丁文 commoditās（合宜、便利、好處），源頭是 commodus（合適的），拆開是 com-（一起、相合）+ modus（尺度、分寸）。有意思的是 modus 這個「尺度、量」就藏在現代意思裡：commodity 講的正是「按量計價、可以交易的貨」。而早期「便利、對人有好處的東西」那層，則留在了第二個意思「寶貴的東西」上——兩層各接了字源的一半。
Wiktionary / Etymonline (commodity ← Latin commoditās ← commodus, com- + modus 'measure')
Two branches
難得的好東西
接的是字根 commodus「對人有好處、合用」那一半，再把第一層的市場語感借過來，用來形容稀缺而珍貴的無形之物。
valuable, scarce thing · noun · C1
A useful quality or thing that people want, often one that is hard to get, such as time or trust.
寶貴之物
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
commoditynoun/kəˈmɑdəti/
- 1
businessAnything movable (a good) that is bought and sold.
- It is with the help of the commodity concept that the mechanism of the market is geared to the various elements of industrial life. Commodities are here empirically defined as objects produced for sale on the market; […]. But labor, land, and money are obviously not commodities; the postulate that anything that is bought and sold must have been produced for sale is emphatically untrue in regard to them.
- If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity.
- 2
Something useful or valuable.
- And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time.
- 3
economicssciencesRaw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.
- The price of crude oil is determined in continuous trading between professional players in World's many commodities exchanges.
- 4
businessmarketingUndifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin and (usually) fungibility, as distinguished from branded products not wholly fungible.
- Although they were once in the forefront of consumer electronics, the calculators have become a mere commodity.
- 5
Anything which has both a use value and an exchange value.
- 6
obsoleteConvenience; usefulness, suitability.
- 7
obsoleteSelf-interest; personal convenience or advantage.
- Shall we employ the intelligence Heaven hath bestowed upon us for our greatest good, to our ruine? repugning natures desseign and the universal order and vicissitude of things, which implieth that every man should use his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie?
- they commonly respect their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their action[…].
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。