negotiate
English
WOTD – 21 February 2007
Alternative forms
- negociate (archaic)
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin negotiatus, past participle of negotiari (“to carry on business”), from negotium (“business”) (Eng. usg. 1599), from nec (“not”) + otium (“leisure, ease, inactivity”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, /nɪˈɡoʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, /nɪˈɡəʊ.si.eɪt/
- (US) IPA(key): /nəˈɡoʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, /nɪˈɡoʊ.ʃi.eɪt/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
negotiate (third-person singular simple present negotiates, present participle negotiating, simple past and past participle negotiated)
- (intransitive) To confer with others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement.
- 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., to the eight fellow clergymen who opposed the civil rights action, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait
- "You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue."
- 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., to the eight fellow clergymen who opposed the civil rights action, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait
- (transitive) To arrange or settle something by mutual agreement.
- 2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:
- Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. […] The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.
- We negotiated the contract to everyone's satisfaction.
- The client and server computers must first negotiate a network protocol to be used.
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- (transitive) To succeed in coping with, or getting over something.
- 2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 15 November 2016:
- Novak Djokovic earlier had negotiated his own tricky passage through the fifth day.
- We negotiated the mountain track with difficulty.
- Although the car was quite rickety, he could negotiate the curves very well.
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- (transitive) To transfer to another person with all the rights of the original holder; to pass, as a bill.
- (obsolete) To transact business; to carry on trade.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Hammond to this entry?)
- (obsolete) To intrigue; to scheme.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
Derived terms
Translations
confer to reach an agreement (intransitive)
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arrange a mutual agreement (transitive)
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coping with, getting over
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Further reading
- negotiate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- negotiate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Latin
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