1. A stock exchange; especially, one that is located in a continental European city.
2. Etymology: from Old French borse, "money bag, purse" (12th century), from Medieval Latin bursa, "a bag".

The French spelling and modern sense of "exchange for merchants" was first recorded in 1845, from the name of the Paris stock exchange.

The term bourse originated because in 13th century Bruges was the sign of a purse (or perhaps three purses) which was hung on the front of a house where merchants met to do business with each other.