cartel

Forms

cartel n (plural carteluri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cartel, the source that every dictionary names.^[2][3][1] Ciorănescu adds Italian cartello, and DEX 2009 and MDN add the English word cartel.^[4][3][5] The economic sense “monopoly union” came into French after German Kartell.^[2] The French word (1527) was borrowed from the Italian one, then meaning “notice, poster; challenge”, a diminutive of carta (“paper”), from Latin charta, which is from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “sheet of papyrus”).^[2][6][7]

Inherited carte (book) comes from the same Latin word.^[7] Ciorănescu treats cartelă (a ration card) as a variant of the word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1832, in the sense “letter of challenge to a duel”.^[2] This is also the first sense of the French word, which became a historical term in France after duels were banned in 1626.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Two older senses came with the duel: the challenge itself, and a written agreement between states at war on exchanging or ransoming prisoners.^[8] Barcianu in 1886 still glosses the word with German Fehdebrief “letter of challenge” and Auslieferungsvertrag “extradition treaty”.^[8][9] The DA in 1913 calls these senses old and gives as current an agreement between manufacturers or traders to control production and sales, usually to raise prices, and an alliance of political parties, as in cartel electoral.^[8] The economic sense, after German Kartell, is now the first one.^[2][3] The verb cartela “to form a cartel” is recorded from 1871 and decartelizare “breaking up of a cartel”, after French décartellisation, from 1967.^[2]

Timeline

• 1832 – “letter of challenge to a duel”, the first record.^[2]
• 1871 – the verb cartela “to form a cartel”.^[2]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it “letter of challenge, extradition treaty”.^[9]
• 1913 – the DA gives the economic and political senses as current.^[8]
• 1931 – CADE gives four senses, from the duel to the producers' association.^[10]
• 1967 – decartelizare “breaking up of a cartel”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cartel: a union of firms of one industry that fix prices, terms of sale and supply and output, and share out markets, to limit or remove competition.^[3][11]
2. A coalition of two or more parties or organizations.^[3][5]
3. (obsolete) A written agreement between states on the exchange or ransom of prisoners.^[3][8]
4. (obsolete) A letter of challenge to a duel; the challenge itself.^[11][8]

Word family

• cartela
• decartelizare

Related words

• carte
• cartă
• cartelă
• French cartel

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cartel
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 148
4. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cartel
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cartel
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. carta
8. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. cartel
9. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 88
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cartel
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 302