Etymology: < Old French bargaine, also bargaigne , -gagne , -caigne = Provençal barganha , Portuguese barganha (compare Provençal barganh , Italian bargagno ), pointing to a late Latin form *barcāneum , *barcānea : see bargain v. The etymology being obscure, the development of meaning is also doubtful.

Etymology: ? same word as bargain n.¹

Etymology: < Old French bargaigne-r = Provençal barganhar , Italian bargagnare < late Latin barcāneāre , barcāniāre (in Capit. Charles the Bald), which Diez proposes to refer (through *barcāneus : see bargain n.¹) to barca ‘a bark or barge, which,’ according to the definition of Isidore, ‘carries goods to and fro’; thence might arise the sense either of ‘go backwards and forwards, come and go as to a matter, be off and on’ (compare modern French barguigner to hesitate, have difficulty in making up one's mind), or of ‘trade, traffic, deal.’ But difficulties attend both form- and sense-development; and the order of senses here followed is purely empirical.