Other forms: bargaining, bargains, bargained
A bargain is something bought for much less than it is worth. A real bargain, bargain prices, pick up a bargain.
The verb means to negotiate over a price, which is the older sense: bargain with the seller, drive a hard bargain. Bargaining is the general activity, and collective bargaining is negotiation between a union and an employer. Note into the bargain, meaning in addition to everything else; a bargain is a bargain, said when somebody wants to change terms; and bargain basement, meaning cheap and slightly shoddy.
1nounbargainSomething bought for much less than it is worth.
“The whole table was a bargain at forty pounds.”
2verbnegotiateTo negotiate over a price or terms.
“He bargained for twenty minutes and saved four pounds.”
3nounagreementAn agreement between two sides.
“They struck a bargain and both stuck to it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
bargain is a deal or good buy.
Also accepted in games: deal
Old French bargaignier probably came from a Frankish verb meaning to lend or borrow. The word has always been about the negotiation rather than the goods — the low price is the outcome of the bargaining, and English later named the outcome after the process.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰergʰ- — to protect, secure
Proto-Germanic
*burgijaną — to borrow, lend
Frankish
*borganjan — to borrow, lend
Old French
bargaigner — to bargain
Middle English
bargaynen — to bargain, make a pledge for sale
English, today
bargain
From Middle English bargaynen (“to bargain, make a pledge for sale”), from Old French bargaigner (“to bargain”), from Frankish borganjan (“to borrow, lend”), from Proto-Germanic burgijaną (“to borrow, lend”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰergʰ- (“to protect, secure”). Akin to Old High German boragen, borgen (“to look after, care for”) (German borgen), Old English borgian (“to borrow, lend, pledge”). More at borrow. Compare French barguigner and Portuguese barganhar.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA