Post

Acheter, meaning 'to buy', is a French verb that it gets from Latin acceptāre 'to take'. The Old Norman equivalent to acheter was acater, from which Middle English gained the position of an 'acater', an official who bought provisions. This lost its initial A in English, giving us the word 'cater'.

Is there another Latin root to kaufen, kaupa, kjøpe? Where do they come from?

Sure thing! (And from the Germanic the Slavic, e.g. Polish kupić) They go back to Latin caupō, a kind of merchant or business owner. But what the Romans got that word from is far from clear...

This is cognate with English "cheap," right? I know there was OE "ceapian," which I assume is related to "kaufen," but it's strange to have turned into an adjective? (From which I gather the verb "cheapen" is derived in the manner of "widen," etc.)