χάρτης

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kʰár.tɛːs/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈxar.tis/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈxar.tis/^[1]

Forms

χᾰ́ρτης (khártēs) m (genitive χᾰ́ρτου); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3][4] Like the papyrus plant itself it probably came from Egypt, though this is unconfirmed.^[2][3][4] A derivation from χαράσσω (kharássō, “to scratch, engrave”), given in Strong's concordance, is rejected by Beekes and Chantraine.^[1] Rendsburg suggests a Phoenician source, Phoenician 𐤇𐤓𐤈𐤉𐤕 (ḥrṭyt, “that which has been written”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first recorded uses are in Hippocratic treatises and in Attic inscriptions, for a leaf or roll of papyrus.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Plato Comicus and Hellenistic writers used it for a papyrus sheet or roll, and figuratively for a thin plate.^[2] The Septuagint's Jeremiah and the Second Epistle of John use it.^[5] Its derivatives include the diminutive χαρτίον (khartíon) and late terms for the papyrus tax.^[2]

Latin borrowed it as charta, the source of French carte and German Karte;^[2][3] Greek later took back Latin derivatives such as χαρτουλάριος “archivist”.^[2][3] Sanskrit कडित्र (kaḍitra, “writing leather”) probably comes from it.^[2] Modern Greek χάρτης “paper; map” is learned; its sense “map” is a semantic loan from Italian carta and English chart.^[6]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Hippocratic treatises use it.^[5]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for a scroll.^[5]
• 1st century AD – The Second Epistle of John uses it.^[5]
• Late Greek – Greek borrows χαρτουλάριος from Latin.^[2]
• Modern Greek – χάρτης means paper and map.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leaf of papyrus; a roll; paper.^[2][1]
2. A book.^[1]
3. A thin plate.^[2]

Word family

• χαρτίον (khartíon)
• χαρτοθήκη (khartothḗkē)

Related words

• Latin charta
• English chart

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b c d e Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki