Shop

Shop, a term originally for a booth or stall where goods were sold, and in most cases also made, now used chiefly in the sense of a room or set of rooms in a building where goods are displayed for sale and sold by retail, also the building containing the rooms. Another application of the word is to the building or rooms in which the making or repairing of articles is carried on, a carpenter's shop, a repairing-shop, at engineering works and the like. In America, in the smaller towns and rural districts the "shop" is usually styled a "store" (O.F. estor, Late Lat. staurum, instaurare, to build, construct, in later use, to provide necessaries). While in America in the larger cities the word "shop" is becoming applied to the retail places of sale, in English usage "store" has in recent years become the recognized form for the large retail places for universal supply.