market basketn.
/ˈmɑːkɪt ˌbɑːskᵻt/, /ˈmɑːkɪt ˌbaskᵻt/, U.S. /ˈmɑrkət ˌbæskət/ 1. A large basket, typically one with a lid, used to carry provisions, etc.
ΚΠ
1504 in N. S. B. Gras Early Eng. Customs Syst. (1918) 672 Pro iii dussenis markett basketts val. xx d.
1585 in M. A. Havinden Househ. & Farm Inventories Oxfordshire (1965) 193 A markett baskett.
1807 Salmagundi 27 June 247 Particular description of market-baskets, butchers' blocks and wheel-barrows.
a1862 H. D. Thoreau Maine Woods (1864) 168 The canoe was thus as closely packed as a market-basket.
1932 W. Faulkner Light in August xiii. 291 He is in midstride, halfway home, his laden small market basket on his arm.
1997 Baltimore Mag. Aug. 44/1 The coffee's good here, but more in keeping with the vibe, a hippy-ish character behind the counter will juice a market-basket of vegetables and fruits for the elixir of your choice.
2. Economics. A selected list of food and household items chosen as a representative sample of common purchases and used to measure the cost of living.
ΚΠ
1962 Jrnl. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 57 814 The weight structure of the index is based on a ‘fixed market basket’ of commodities and services.
1987 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 95 784 Hagemann (1982) defined household-level ‘market baskets’ by calculating expenditures in 37 categories of consumption.
1996 Monthly Labor Rev. (Electronic ed.) Dec. Consumers change their purchasing patterns over time, and to ensure a contemporaneous nexus between average price change as measured by the CPI and the spending behavior of urban consumers, it is necessary to redefine and update the market basket periodically.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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