Negotiate comes from Latin negōtiārī, meaning "to carry on business," and the word shares that meaning. In English, it can also mean "to successfully travel along or over."
The customer wanted to negotiate over the price. She has good negotiating skills. We negotiated a fair price. The driver carefully negotiated the winding road.
Recent Examples on the WebEven if the United States managed to get Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders to negotiate and come to an agreement, there will still be a terrorist organization controlling Gaza that vows to destroy Israel. Dmitriy Shapiro, Sun Sentinel, 30 Aug. 2022 Police said that an initial investigation by the Bristol Police Department’s Serious Traffic Accident Reconstruction Team determined that the man failed to negotiate a curve and crashed while traveling eastbound on Redstone Hill Road. Alison Cross, Hartford Courant, 21 Aug. 2022 The families unsuccessfully pressed the Obama administration to negotiate with the Islamic State and pay ransoms for the release of the captives, as other countries did. Adam Goldman, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2022 The act gives Medicare the ability to negotiate with drugmakers for 10 drugs starting in 2026 and 20 by 2029. Simon F. Haeder, The Conversation, 17 Aug. 2022 This helps to define negotiation goals: whether to have a dialogue or not; whether to negotiate for information or more time; and finally, whether to pay or not to pay. Etay Maor, Forbes, 17 Aug. 2022 In June, the Bureau of Reclamation’s commissioner, Camille Calimlim Touton, had called on the seven states to negotiate and recommend much steeper cuts to maintain safe operations. Henry Fountain, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Aug. 2022 After the courts finally forced states, cities, towns and counties to share the water with tribes, settlements would take decades to negotiate and gain congressional approval.AZCentral.com, 8 Aug. 2022 Empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prescription-drug prices and imposing a 1% tax on stock buybacks will also add revenue to the government’s budget in the next decade. Siobhan Hughes, WSJ, 6 Aug. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Latin negōtiātus, past participle of negōtiārī "to do business, trade, deal," derivative of negōtium "work, business, difficulty, annoyance," from nec "not" + ōtium "free time, leisure, tranquility," of obscure origin — more at neglect entry 1
Note: The sense "to confer in order to arrive at a settlement" is probably based on Middle French negocier or Italian negoziare, which had developed this sense, not belonging to the Latin source, by the mid-16th century.