Definition
Capable of being bought or sold; merchantable. The term describes goods or property that are fit for and available to commerce — that is, susceptible to lawful transfer by sale or purchase. In historical legal usage, mercable was applied to commodities, chattels, or interests that could properly pass in trade, distinguishing them from things outside commerce (such as res communes or property subject to legal disability of alienation).
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Capable of being bought or sold.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Capable of being bought or sold. [Obs.]
Both Webster's 1913 and Wiktionary mark the word as obsolete or archaic in common English, and its meaning in ordinary usage is essentially identical to its legal sense. The term appears here because it surfaces in historical legal documents and requires recognition, not because the legal meaning diverges from the common meaning.
Common Confusion
MERCABLE vs. MERCHANTABLE: These terms are closely related but not identical in legal precision. Merchantable (or merchantable quality) developed a robust body of commercial law meaning — fitness for the ordinary purposes for which goods are used, with implied warranty dimensions now codified in the Uniform Commercial Code and earlier Sale of Goods legislation. Mercable, by contrast, remained a simpler, more abstract descriptor: capable of being the subject of sale at all, without the quality-fitness dimension. A researcher encountering mercable in a historical document should not read into it the technical freight of merchantable as used in warranty or contract law.
Why It Matters in Research
Mercable is an archaic term unlikely to appear in modern legal materials but does appear in older common law texts, ecclesiastical records, and early commercial documents. Researchers working in pre-nineteenth-century English or colonial American sources may encounter it in discussions of what property or rights could lawfully be alienated or transferred — a question with significant implications in contexts such as crown grants, monopoly law, and the legal status of particular commodities.
The principal research trap is treating mercable as a synonym for merchantable when reading vintage contracts, pleadings, or commercial treatises. The words share a root and overlap in meaning, but merchantable carried evolving implied warranty content in commercial law that mercable never acquired. Collapsing the distinction can produce anachronistic readings of historical documents.
For corpus researchers, the term is most likely to appear in Law Mind sources dealing with early English commercial law, the law of markets and fairs, or the status of particular goods under crown regulation. It may also surface in ecclesiastical or civil law contexts discussing whether certain things — offices, spiritual rights, dignities — were or were not mercable, i.e., capable of being bought and sold (a question with distinct canon law dimensions concerning simony).
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries — both editions of Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence — provide nearly identical entries of minimal length. Black's both editions: "Merchantable; to be sold or bought." Rapalje & Lawrence: "To be sold or bought." There is no meaningful divergence among sources, and none of the historical dictionaries offer elaboration, authority, or contextual guidance beyond the bare gloss.
What the historical sources collectively miss: none of the dictionaries distinguish mercable from merchantable, none note the obsolescence of the term in English usage by the nineteenth century (which Webster's 1913 flags in common usage), and none address the canon law dimension of the concept. Researchers should treat these entries as recognition aids only, not analytical guides.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Merchantable / Merchantability; Markets and Fairs; Alienation (Property).