Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Commodity
1.
Convenience; accommodation; profit; benefit; advantage; interest; commodiousness.
[Obs.]
Drawn by the
commodity
of a footpath. B. Jonson.
Men may seek their own
commodity
, yet if this were done with injury to others, it was not to be suffered. Hooker.
2.
That which affords convenience, advantage, or profit, especially in commerce, including everything movable that is bought and sold (except animals), – goods, wares, merchandise, produce of land and manufactures, etc.
3.
A parcel or quantity of goods.
[Obs.]
A
commodity
of brown paper and old ginger. Shakespeare
Webster 1828 Edition
Commodity
COMMODITY
, n.1.
Primarily, convenience; profit; advantage; interest. Men seek their own commodity. In this sense it was used by Hooker, Sidney, &c; but this is nearly or wholly obsolete.2.
That which affords ease, convenience or advantage; any thing that is useful, but particularly in commerce, including every thing movable that is bought and sold, goods, wares, merchandize, produce of land and manufactures. Unless perhaps animals may be excepted, the word includes all the movables which are objects of commerce.Commodities are movables, valuable by money, the common measure.
The principal use of money is to save the commutation of more bulky commodities.
Staple commodities are those which are the produce or manufacture of a country, and constitute the principal articles of exportation. Thus flour is the staple commodity of New-York and Pennsylvania; flour and tobacco, of Maryland and Virginia; cotton and rice, of S. Carolina and Georgia; cotton and sugar, of Louisiana.