bourse

Meanings

1. A stock exchange.
2. Any place, real or imagined, where the value of a thing is settled.
3. A meeting of stamp collectors and/or dealers, where stamps and covers are sold or exchanged.
4. The swollen basal part of an inflorescence axis at the onset of fruit development; it bears leaves whose axillary buds differentiate and may grow out as shoots.

Etymology

Borrowed from French bourse, from Old French borse, from Latin bursa, from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa). Doublet of purse, compare Danish børs, Swedish börs, German Börse. See also bursar.