What is "market cross"

Market \Mar"ket\, n. [Akin to D. markt, OHG. mark[=a]t, merk[=a]t, G. markt; all fr.L. mercatus trade, market place, fr. mercari, p. p. mercatus, to trade, traffic, merx, mercis, ware, merchandise, prob. akin to merere to deserve, gain, acquire: cf. F. march['e]. See Merit, and cf. Merchant, Mart.]

1. A meeting together of people, at a stated time and place, for the purpose of buying and selling (as cattle, provisions, wares, etc.) by private purchase and sale, and not by auction; as, a market is held in the town every week; a farmers' market.

   He is wit's peddler; and retails his wares At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs.
   --Shak.

   Three women and a goose make a market.
   --Old Saying.

2. A public place (as an open space in a town) or a large building, where a market is held; a market place or market house; esp., a place where provisions are sold.

   There is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool.
   --John v. 2.

3. An opportunity for selling or buying anything; demand, as shown by price offered or obtainable; as, to find a market for one's wares; there is no market for woolen cloths in that region; India is a market for English goods; there are none for sale on the market; the best price on the market.

   There is a third thing to be considered: how a market can be created for produce, or how production can be limited to the capacities of the market.
   --J. S. Mill.

4. Exchange, or purchase and sale; traffic; as, a dull market; a slow market.

5. The price for which a thing is sold in a market; market price. Hence: Value; worth.

   What is a man If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed?
   --Shak.

6. (Eng. Law) The privelege granted to a town of having a public market.

7. A specified group of potential buyers, or a region in which goods may be sold; a town, region, or country, where the demand exists; as, the under-30 market; the New Jersey market.

   Note: Market is often used adjectively, or in forming compounds of obvious meaning; as, market basket, market day, market folk, market house, marketman, market place, market price, market rate, market wagon, market woman, and the like.

   Market beater, a swaggering bully; a noisy braggart. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

   Market bell, a bell rung to give notice that buying and selling in a market may begin. [Eng.]
   --Shak.

   Market cross, a cross set up where a market is held.
   --Shak.

   Market garden, a garden in which vegetables are raised for market.

   Market gardening, the raising of vegetables for market.

   Market place, an open square or place in a town where markets or public sales are held.

   Market town, a town that has the privilege of a stated public market.

n. a cross-shaped monument set up in the marketplace of a town where public business is often conducted

A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. Market crosses were originally from the distinctive tradition in Early Medieval Insular art of free-standing stone standing or high crosses, often elaborately carved, which goes back to the 7th century. Market crosses can be found in most market towns in Britain. British emigrants often installed such crosses in their new cities, and several can be found in Canada and Australia.

These structures range from carved stone spires, obelisks or crosses, common to small market towns such as that in Stalbridge, Dorset, to large, ornate covered structures, such as the Chichester Cross or Malmesbury Market Cross. Market Crosses can also be constructed from wood; an example is at Wymondham, Norfolk.