English
cartel
Cartel comes from French cartel ‘a cartel’, from Italian cartello ‘sign, notice, placard, signboard’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- ‘to scratch’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰer-‘to scratch’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEχᾰρᾰ́σσωkhărắssō‘to scratch’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEχάρτης‘paper’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEchartaas carta‘papyrus, paper’
- Italianc. 1300–presentcartello‘sign, notice, placard, signboard’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcartel‘a cartel’
- Germanc. 1650–presentKartell
- Englishearliest quotation 1603cartel
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰer-‘to scratch’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEχᾰρᾰ́σσωkhărắssō‘to scratch’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEχάρτης‘paper’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEchartaas carta‘papyrus, paper’
- Italianc. 1300–presentcartello‘sign, notice, placard, signboard’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcartel‘a cartel’
- Germanc. 1650–presentKartell
- Englishearliest quotation 1603cartel
Earliest quotation: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes […]: “Xerxes whipped the Sea, and writ a cartell of…”
first attested In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag (as stated in the etymology)
The story
In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense, like the German sense, was borrowed from French cartel in the sixteenth century, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta (‘card, page’), from Latin charta.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- ‘to scratch’
girl, rocket, chronic, chorus, synchronous, urchin, crony, synchronize, cron, germanium, 33 more
through Ancient Greek χάρτης ‘paper’
through Latin charta ‘papyrus, paper’
card, chart, cartridge, carton, cartography, cartouche, 11 more
Today it means
noun A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- / cartel