Noah Webster
Auction
AUC'TION, noun [Latin auctio, a public sale; Eng. to hawk. See Hawk.]
1. A public sale of property to the highest bidder, and regularly, by a person licensed and authorized for the purpose; a vendue. contracts for services, sometimes, are sold to the lowest bidder. By the Romans, this species of sale was made by a crier, sub hasta, under a spear stuck in the earth.
2. The thing sold at auction