Dictionary

cheapstead en · NOUN

Etymology

From cheap (“purchase, business, market”) + stead (“place”), probably a translation of Old Norse kaupstaðr (“marketplace”). Compare Icelandic kaupstaður (“market town”), Swedish köpstad (“market town”), Old English ċēapstōw (“marketplace”).

Meanings

1. (historical, rare) A marketplace.
   • […] three weeks of winter were employed in butchering, and more than an acre of field surrounding the cheapstead at Housewick was covered with knots of men and women decapitating and flaying their flocks. 1879, Charles George Warnford Lock, Clement le Neve Foster, The home of the Eddas:
   • Sleet showers continued until we reached the cheapstead of Akureyri (Acre Beach), at the south end of the fjord. 1900, Manchester Geographical Society, The Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society:

Forms