cartello

Forms

cartello m (plural cartelli)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian carta + -ello, a diminutive of carta (“paper”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The base word goes back to Latin charta, from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “sheet of papyrus”).^[3][1] Wiktionary compares Sicilian carteḍḍu.^[1]

The economic sense “cartel” came back to Italian from German. German Kartell was itself the Italian word, taken in the original sense “letter of challenge”, and DELI treats the Italian sense “economic or political alliance” as a calque of it.^[2][3][6] The DEI and Wiktionary have the German word reach Italian through French cartel.^[7][1] DELI rejects that route: the first Italian records of the sense name the German word explicitly and are older than the matching French ones.^[2] GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date this sense to the 17th century (GRADIT: 1697), Sabatini–Coletti to 1892.^[4][3][8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Matteo Bandello in 1554, with the sense “a notice, written or printed, for public announcements”.^[2][4] Old uses quoted by Tommaseo are bills posted on walls in Davanzati's translation of Tacitus (appiccarne i cartelli, “to post up the bills for it”) and a defamatory libel: Augusto fu il primo che fece caso di Stato e Maestà di cartelli (“Augustus was the first to make libels a matter of state and of lèse-majesté”).^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the public notice the word spread to a shop sign, the label on the spine of a book, and the challenge to a duel (cartello di sfida).^[4][10][11] In older use it was also the writing hung round the neck of a person put in the pillory, and a libel posted in a public place.^[4][5] The poster announcing a play or a show was once a cartello too (today more often cartellone): an actor or singer di cartello was one whose name was printed large on the theatre bills, hence a performer of great fame.^[6] The diminutive cartellino is recorded from 1846 and cartellone from 1661.^[2]

French borrowed it as cartel in 1527 for a letter of challenge, and, from 1704 for a written agreement between nations at war on the ransom and exchange of prisoners.^[12][7] English took the word from French in the 1550s, as “a written challenge”.^[13] The sense “association of industrialists fixing prices” spread from German Kartell;^[13] English has it from 1900.^[13] In Italian, DELI records cartello daziario in Carlo Cattaneo in 1834, the German parliamentary alliance in 1892, and the economic sense “a kind of syndicate of owners and industrialists to keep prices up” in Panzini's dictionary of 1905, explained as a German word translated as cartello.^[2] By extension it now also names an alliance of political or trade-union groups, or of criminal organisations.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1527 – French borrows the word as cartel, a letter of challenge.^[12]
• 1554 – Matteo Bandello uses cartello for a public notice.^[2]
• 1550s – English cartel “written challenge” is borrowed from French.^[13]
• 1661 – Cartellone, a large poster, is first recorded.^[2]
• 1697 – GRADIT's first date for the economic sense.^[4]
• 1834 – Carlo Cattaneo writes of a cartello daziario, a customs agreement.^[2]
• 1846 – Cartellino is first recorded.^[2]
• 1892 – Cartello names an alliance in the German parliament and a customs agreement between neighbouring states.^[2]
• 1905 – Panzini's dictionary defines the economic cartel as a German word translated as cartello.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sign or notice, written or printed in large letters on a board or other material, addressed to the public: Un cartello sul portone avvisava dei lavori.^[4][8][5]
2. A road sign or signpost: cartello stradale, cartello indicatore.^[4][8][1]
3. A placard carried on a pole by demonstrators.^[8][14][5]
4. A shop sign.^[4][5][1]
5. (dated) A poster announcing a show;^[8][11][14] di cartello: famous, of great renown.^[8][11][14]
6. (historical) cartello di sfida: a written challenge to a duel.^[10][11][14]
7. (obsolete) A libel posted in a public place, or the writing hung round the neck of a person put in the pillory.^[4][5][11]
8. (economics) A cartel: an agreement among firms of the same industry on prices, output and markets, to limit competition.^[4][8][5][1]
9. An alliance of political parties, trade unions or other groups with a common aim, or of criminal organisations: un cartello dei partiti di centro.^[4][8][5]
10. (politics) cartello doganale: an agreement between states to prevent smuggling.^[8][14][2]

Word family

• cartellino
• cartellone
• cartellonista
• cartellista
• cartellistico
• cartellare
• decartellizzazione

Related words

• carta
• cartella
• German Kartell
• French cartel

Usage notes

GRADIT and Devoto–Oli treat the economic sense as a separate headword, cartello², from German, beside cartello¹ “notice”.^[4][8] Di cartello (“famous”) is said of artists, writers and also of sporting events.^[11][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 785
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d e f Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli