1973: Karta and Mappa: Cards and Napkins May 10, 2020

There is not a clear pattern always with Germanic, Slavic and Romance language when it comes to words for maps. French and Romanian, but also German, Swedish, Dutch, and Russian use a word along the lines of <karta>, and the English 'cartography', 'chart', and 'card' would fit in this camp. Meanwhile, English and Yiddish, Spanish and Portuguese, and also Polish use words along the lines of <map(a)>. As it happens, the forms around <karta> come ultimately from Greek where χάρτης means 'map' but also 'card'; indeed, it originally just means 'papyrus leaf'. Meanwhile, the <map(a)> forms come not just from Latin, but from the phrase 'Mappa Mundī' (world map), with 'mappa' on its own meaning 'cloth' or even 'napkin'.

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