Forms: 6 bazaro, -arro, 7 bussar, buzzar(r, bazarr, -are, 78 basar, 79 bazar, 8 -aard, 9 bazaar. [Ult. a. Pers. bāzār market. It has been adopted in Hindustani and Turkish, and seems to have come into English use first from the latter, through Italian.]
1. An Oriental market-place or permanent market, usually consisting of ranges of shops or stalls, where all kinds of merchandise are offered for sale.
[c. 1340. Balducci Pegolotti, Merc. Handbk. gives Bazarra as Genoese word for market-place (Y.).]
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 214. A faire place or towne, and in it a faire Bazarro for marchants.
1616. Purchas, Pilgr. (1864), 58. A great Basar or Market of Brazen wares.
c. 1650. R. Bacon, Mirza, 5. A giddy stream of people Powring themselves from all parts to the Buzzarr.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyns Voy. Levant, ix. 33. Several Bazaards or publick Markets.
1815. Moore, Lalla R., Introd. The bazaars were all covered with the richest tapestry.
1863. M. Whately, Ragged Life Egypt, iv. 25. Then we dive into a dark little street it is the shoe-bazaar.
b. A market in an Oriental camp.
1803. Wellington, in Disp., 392. The enemy were completely defeated, with the loss of all their bazars.
1882. C. Francis, Med. Temp. Jrnl., No. 52. 148. Country liquor is too readily obtainable from the bazaar even though the sale of it to soldiers is strictly prohibited.
2. A fancy fair in imitation of the Eastern bazaar; esp. a sale of useful and ornamental articles, in behalf of some charitable or religious object.
1816. Soho Bazaar.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, II. 216. No Vanity Fair opened in aid of the funds, under the title of a Ladies Bazaar.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 346. Milliners, toymen, and jewellers came down from London, and opened a bazaar under the trees.
1876. World, No. 106. 16. A bazaar is the clergymans recognised ultimate hope when he wants to enlarge his school.