“traffick” is a form of
traffic
/ˈtɹæfɪk/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms traffics trafficking trafficked traffick traffique
- noun Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof. “The traffic is slow during rush hour.”
- noun The commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
- noun A flow of customers for a store or restaurant. “Sales are down due to a decline in store traffic.”
- noun The illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
- noun The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
- noun (radio) Of CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.
- noun (advertising) The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc., in a publication.
- noun The commodities of the market.
- verb (intransitive) To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods.
- verb (intransitive) To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
- verb (transitive) To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.
- adjective (Philippines) Congested. “It’s super traffic here in Manila.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *trānsfrīcāre (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic تَفْرِيق (tafrīq, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”).
The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods; to barter; to trade.
- verb To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
- verb To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.
- noun Commerce, either by barter or by buying and selling; interchange of goods and commodities; trade.
Etymology [F. trafiquer; cf. It. trafficare, Sp. traficar, trafagar, Pg. traficar, trafegar, trafeguear, LL. traficare; of uncertain origin, perhaps fr. L. trans across, over + -ficare to make (see -fy, and cf. G. übermachen to transmit, send over, e. g., money, wares); or cf. Pg. trasfegar to pour out from one vessel into another, OPg. also, to traffic, perhaps fr. (assumed) LL. vicare to exchange, from L. vicis change (cf. Vicar).]
Etymology [Cf. F. trafic, It. traffico, Sp. tráfico, tráfago, Pg. tráfego, LL. traficum, trafica. See Traffic, v.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “traffic”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details