Where does “Visitenkarte” come from?

Visitenkarte (German) comes from German karte, from Middle High German karte, from Old French carte, from Latin charta, from French cartel, from Italian cartello, from Italian carta, from Latin carta — to yearn for; to enclose; bowels, intestines.

Visitenkarte (German): visiting card; business card; calling card

Definitions

  1. visiting card; business card; calling card

Ancestry of “Visitenkarte”, step by step

Visitenkarte traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via German karte

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Germankartecard flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff paper, plastic etc
2Middle High Germankarte
3Old FrenchcarteAlternative form of chartre
4Latinchartapapyrus, paper; poem, a writing; map
5Frenchcartela cartel
6Italiancartellosign, notice, placard, signboard; signpost, road...
7Italiancartapaper; map; menu
8Latincartapapyrus; letter etc
9Ancient Greekχάρτηςsheet of paper, paper; book
10Ancient Greekχαράσσωto sharpen; to engrave, carve, write, draw, stamp
11Proto-Indo-Europeanǵʰer-to yearn for; to enclose; bowels, intestines

via German Visite

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1GermanVisitevisit; a single act of visiting
2Frenchvisitevisit; third-person singular present indicative...
3Frenchvisiterto visit
4Middle Frenchvisiterto visit
5Latinvīsitōto see
6Latin-itoForms frequentative verbs from existing verbs or...
7Latin-tōForms here
8Latin-tusForms the past participle of verbs; Forms...
9Proto-Italic-tus
10Proto-Indo-European-tusDerives action nouns from verb roots
Every word from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰer-Every word from Ancient Greek χαράσσωEvery word from Ancient Greek χάρτης