Karte

Forms

Karte f (genitive Karte, plural Karten, diminutive Kärtchen n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German karte (“stiff sheet of paper”), borrowed from French carte (“stiff sheet”), borrowed in the 14th century.^[2][3][4] The French word goes back to Latin charta (“sheet of papyrus, paper”), from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “sheet of papyrus”), which is probably of Egyptian origin.^[2][4][1] The same word is English card, Dutch kaart and Swedish kort.^[2][1]

Kluge holds that the sense “playing card” was taken over from Italian.^[2] Pfeifer goes further: the Middle French word itself rests on several borrowings, chiefly from Italian carta (“paper, card, map, playing card”), partly perhaps from Medieval Latin charta.^[3] The Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch also separates the older sense of a sheet for writing, from Latin, from the playing card, a later loan through Italian.^[5] Charta and Karton are later borrowings of the same Latin and Italian words.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Late Middle High German karte meant a piece of paper or parchment, a document, a painted sheet and also a playing card.^[3][5] The Grimms' dictionary quotes Michel Beheim offering a king karten, gsigelt und ungeschriben brief (“cards, sealed and unwritten letters”), that is, blank sheets already bearing the seal.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a stiff sheet used for some purpose, then all kinds of written, printed or painted pieces of card: the playing card, the map, the visiting card and others.^[4][7] Paul records kartenspill “card game” in 1461 and the sense “map”, short for Landkarte, in 1663; later it became short for Postkarte and similar compounds.^[7] It is also used collectively for all the cards of a game or a player, as in eine gute Karte haben.^[7][5]

Many phrases come from card games: die Karten aufdecken “to reveal one's intentions”, mit offenen Karten spielen, sich nicht in die Karten sehen lassen and alles auf eine Karte setzen “to risk everything at once”.^[3][4] Paul finds the last in Lenz's Die Soldaten and sich nicht in die Karten gucken lassen in Christian Weise.^[7] The verb karten “to play cards”, also “to arrange cunningly” (about 1500), was later replaced in that sense by abkarten (18th century), properly “to deal the cards by secret agreement”.^[3][4] German Karte was borrowed into Hungarian as kártya (1495) and into Polish as karta.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 14th century – Late Middle High German karte is borrowed from French.^[2][3]
• 1461 – kartenspill “card game” is recorded.^[7]
• 1494 – First record of the verb karten.^[7]
• 1495 – Hungarian kártya “playing card” is first recorded, from German.^[8]
• 1663 – First record of Karte for a map.^[7]
• 18th century – abkarten “to fix in advance” appears.^[3][4]
• Late 19th century – Kartei “card index” is formed, at first as a trade name.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A card: a rectangular piece of thin cardboard or plastic used for notes, records and other purposes.^[9][1]
2. (football) die gelbe Karte, die rote Karte: the yellow or red card shown by the referee as a caution or a sending-off.^[9]
3. Short for Postkarte or Ansichtskarte: a postcard: Wir schicken euch eine Karte aus Rom.^[9][1]
4. Short for Visitenkarte, Einladungskarte and similar compounds: a visiting card, an invitation card.^[9]
5. Short for Speisekarte: a menu;^[9][1] nach der Karte essen, to order dishes from the menu rather than the set meal.^[9][1]
6. Short for Fahrkarte or Eintrittskarte: a ticket.^[9][1]
7. A playing card (Spielkarte), also collectively the cards a player holds: Sie mischte die Karten.^[9][1]
8. Short for Landkarte: a map.^[9][1]
9. Short for Kreditkarte or a bank card.^[1]
10. (mathematics) A coordinate chart in differential geometry.^[1]

Word family

• Kartei
• abkarten
• Ansichtskarte
• Landkarte
• Postkarte
• Spielkarte
• Speisekarte
• Eintrittskarte
• Fahrkarte
• Kreditkarte
• Visitenkarte
• Kartenspiel
• Lochkarte

Related words

• Charta
• Karton
• Kartell
• Kartusche
• English card

Usage notes

Auf die falsche Karte setzen is to misjudge a situation and back the wrong side.^[3] The fixed phrase abgekartetes Spiel “a put-up job” comes from abkarten.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 477
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 421
5. ^ a b c Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 234
7. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag