Etymologically
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chart

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /tʃɑːt/, US /tʃɑːrt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French charte (“card, map”),[2][3][4] from Latin charta (“paper, card, map”),[2][3] from Ancient Greek χάρτης (chártēs, “leaf of paper, roll of papyrus”),[3][5] perhaps of Egyptian origin.[3][5] It is a doublet of card, and related to charter.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A map: 1571 in the OED, Barnhart and MWU, the 1570s in Etymonline, where it is a map for navigators.[7][3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

Charte was the original French form in all senses, but after the 14th century carte began to replace it, and English used both carte and card for “map” from the 15th to the 17th century; in the 17th century chart could also be a playing card.[2][8] The words then went their separate ways, and chart has kept the “map” sense.[2] A sea-chart for navigators is from 1696, and an outline map for other purposes from 1580.[7] A sheet of information in tables is from 1840,[2][3] and a graph of changing quantities from 1880.[7] In music a chart is an arrangement or score (1957),[2][7] and a list of the best-selling records from 1963;[7] Etymonline dates the charts printed in Billboard from about 1942, and the verb “to appear on them” by 1961.[2] The verb, to map, is from 1842 in Barnhart and MWU, 1837 in Etymonline.[3][4][2]

Timeline

  • 1571 – a map.[7][3]
  • 1696 – a sea-chart.[7]
  • 1837 – verb, to map.[2]
  • 1840 – a table of information.[3][2]
  • 1880 – a graph.[7]
  • 1957 – a musical arrangement.[7]
  • 1963 – the record charts.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A drawing that shows information as a graph, diagram or table.
  2. A map of the sea or the sky, used for navigation.
  3. the charts: the weekly list of best-selling pop records.

Verb

  1. To make a map or chart of something.
  2. To record or follow the progress of something.
  3. To plan a course of action.
  4. Of a record, to appear in the charts.

Word family

  • chartable
  • prechart
  • chartless
  • rechart
  • bar chart
  • control chart
  • card
  • cartography
  • cartoon
  • cartouche
  • charter
  • Magna Carta
  • carton
  • cartel

Usage notes

In Kent and Surrey dialect a chart is a rough common overgrown with gorse and bracken, often in place-names.[9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)