Etymologically
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card

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English has two words spelled card: the wire brush for combing wool, from Latin carduus “thistle”, and the piece of stiff paper, from Latin charta “papyrus leaf”.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /kɑːd/, US /kɑːrd/[4]

card1 comb for wool

Etymology

The comb is inherited from Middle English carde, borrowed from Old French carde (“card, teasel”),[5][6][7] from Old Provençal carda, a back-formation from cardar (“to card, tease”),[5][6][8] and also through Anglo-Latin cardo,[5][2] from Latin carduus (“thistle”),[5][1][8] related to cārere (“to card wool”).[6][8] Barnhart and Etymonline trace these to Proto-Indo-European *kars- (“to scrape”), the root of harsh.[2][5] The verb is from the noun, or from Old French carder.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tool for combing wool or flax: 1375, in a legal document, and earlier in the surname Cardmaker, 1351.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The card was first made of teasel heads set in a frame, for raising the nap on cloth,[9] and later was a wire brush on a strip of leather.[10] The verb, “to comb wool”, is from about 1378[2] or the late 14th century.[5]

Timeline

  • 1351 – in the surname Cardmaker.[2]
  • 1375 – a carding tool.[2]
  • c. 1378 – verb, to card wool.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A wire-toothed brush or machine for combing and cleaning fibres such as wool before spinning.

Verb

  1. To comb out fibres with a card.

Word family

  • carder
  • carding

card2 piece of stiff paper

Etymology

The paper card is inherited from Middle English carde, borrowed from Middle French carte in an altered form,[5][2][1][3] from Latin charta (“leaf of papyrus, paper”),[5][1] from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “layer of papyrus”),[5][8] probably of Egyptian origin.[5][8] Its form was influenced by Italian carta (“paper”).[5][3] The change in English from -t to -d is unexplained,[5][2] though Barnhart suggests the influence of the earlier card1; in Scots carte was the established form.[2] It is related to chart and charter.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A playing card: probably before 1425,[2] or the early 15th century,[5] the first recorded sense in English as in French.[5][11]

Semantic evolution

The sense was extended to other small flat pieces of stiff paper by the 1590s,[5] 1596 in Barnhart.[2] A card bearing one's name and address, as a visiting card or business card, is from 1795.[5] A house of cards is from 1641.[10] Play one's cards well is from the mid-18th century, and became play one's cards right in the 20th century.[11] Lay one's cards on the table is from the mid-19th century, and a card up one's sleeve from the 19th century.[11] The verb meant “to play cards” in the 1540s, now obsolete,[5] and “to require someone to show an identity card” from the 1970s.[5] Card table is from 1713 and cardboard from 1848.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1425 – a playing card.[2]
  • 1548 – verb, to play cards.[2]
  • 1596 – a piece of stiff paper.[2]
  • 1641 – house of cards.[10]
  • 1713 – card table.[2]
  • 1795 – a visiting card.[5]
  • 1848 – cardboard.[2]
  • 1970s – to check identity cards.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. One of a set of small rectangles of stiff paper with marks, used in games; a playing card.
  2. A small piece of stiff paper with information printed on it, such as a business card.
  3. A card with a picture and a message: a birthday card.
  4. A small plastic card used for payment or identification: a credit card.
  5. (informal) An amusing or eccentric person.

Verb

  1. To ask someone to show proof of age or identity.

Word family

  • cardboard
  • cardsharp
  • postcard
  • scorecard
  • card table
  • credit card
  • chart
  • charter
  • carte
  • cartoon
  • carton
  • harsh
  • chard

References

  1. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press