cartel

See also: cártel

English

Etymology

In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense, like the German sense, was borrowed from French cartel in the sixteenth century, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta (“card, page”), from Latin charta.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɑːˈtɛl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /kɑɹˈtɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl

Noun

cartel (plural cartels)

2. (economics) A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.

   drug cartel

   car cartel

   • 2023 January 10, Whitney Eulich, America Armenta, “Mexico arrests son of ‘El Chapo’: Why don’t citizens feel safer?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     Over the past decade, the very nature of organized crime has changed, with many groups diversifying their income beyond drug trafficking, and large cartels splintering into smaller, oftentimes more nimble groups.

3. (historical, politics) A combination of political groups (notably parties) for common action.
4. (historical) A written letter of defiance or challenge.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     He is cowed at the very idea of a cartel.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Xerxes whipped the Sea, and writ a cartell of defiance to the hill Athos.

5. (historical, law) An official agreement concerning the exchange of prisoners.
   • 1832, Tales of the Alhambra, Washington Irving:

     He then sent down a flag of truce in military style, proposing a cartel or exchange of prisoners – the corporal for the notary.

6. (historical, nautical) A ship used to negotiate with an enemy in time of war, and to exchange prisoners.

Derived terms

• anticartel
• cartelism
• cartelist
• cartelization
• cartelize
• citation cartel
• drug cartel
• intercartel

 

Descendants

• → Spanish: cártel

Translations

group of businesses or nations that collude to fix prices

• Bulgarian: картел (bg) m (kartel)
• Catalan: càrtel (ca) m
• Chinese:　壟斷聯盟 / 垄断联盟, 行業聯合會 / 行业联合会, 壟斷利益集團 / 垄断利益集团

  Mandarin: 卡特爾 / 卡特尔 (zh) (kǎtè'ěr)

• Czech: kartel m
• Danish: kartel n
• Dutch: kartel (nl) n
• Finnish: kartelli (fi)
• French: cartel (fr) m
• German: Kartell (de) n
• Hebrew: קרטל (he) m (kart'el)
• Icelandic: einokunarhringur m
• Indonesian: kartel (id)
• Japanese: カルテル (ja) (karuteru)
• Kazakh: картель (kartel)
• Korean: 카르텔 (ko) (kareutel)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kartell (no) n

  Nynorsk: kartell n

• Persian: کارتل (fa)
• Polish: kartel (pl) m
• Portuguese: cartel (pt) m
• Romanian: cartel (ro) n
• Russian: карте́ль (ru) m (kartɛ́lʹ)
• Spanish: cártel (es), cartel (es) m
• Swedish: kartell (sv) c
• Urdu: مافیا (māfiyā) (literally 'mafia')

combination of political groups

• Dutch: kartel (nl) n
• French: cartel (fr) m
• Indonesian: kartel (id)
• Russian: карте́ль (ru) m (kartɛ́lʹ)

written challenge or defiance

• Russian: карте́ль (ru) m (kartɛ́lʹ)

official agreement concerning exchange of prisoners

• Polish: kartel (pl) m
• Russian: карте́ль (ru) m (kartɛ́lʹ)

ship used to negotiate with an enemy in time of war

Further reading

• cartel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Claret, arclet, claret, lacert, rectal

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta, from Latin carta. Related to English card.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaʁ.tɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cartel m (plural cartels)

1. a cartel

Descendants

• → Dutch: kartel
• → German: Kartell
  • → Dutch: kartel, (obsolete) cartel
    • Indonesian: kartel
  • → English: cartel
    • → Spanish: cártel
  • → Italian: cartello
• → Portuguese: cartel
• → Swedish: kartell
• → Turkish: kartel

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Further reading

• “cartel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• clarté
• rectal
• tacler

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French cartel.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaʁˈtɛw/ [kahˈtɛʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaʁˈtɛw/ [kahˈtɛʊ̯]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /kaɾˈtɛw/ [kaɾˈtɛʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /kaʁˈtɛw/ [kaχˈtɛʊ̯]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaɻˈtɛw/ [kaɻˈtɛʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐɾˈtɛl/ [kɐɾˈtɛɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐɾˈtɛl/ [kɐɾˈtɛɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐɾˈtɛ.li/

• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Hyphenation: car‧tel

Noun

cartel m (plural cartéis)

1. (economics) cartel (a group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market)

Romanian

Alternative forms

• картел (cartel) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Borrowed from French cartel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /karˈtel/
• Rhymes: -el
• Hyphenation: car‧tel

Noun

cartel n (plural carteluri)

1. cartel

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	cartel	cartelul		carteluri	cartelurile
genitive-dative	cartel	cartelului		carteluri	cartelurilor
vocative	cartelule			cartelurilor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaɾˈtel/ [kaɾˈt̪el]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: car‧tel

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Occitan cartel or Catalan cartell.

Noun

cartel m (plural carteles)

1. poster, placard, bill, banner

   Coordinate terms: letrero, placa, señal

2. lineup, billing
   • 2020 January 16, “El Festival Sónar anuncia a The Chemical Brothers, Arca, The Blaze, Richie Hawtin y Laurent Garnier”, in La Vanguardia‎^[1]:

     El 27 Festival Sónar de Barcelona, que volverá a celebrarse en sus fechas habituales este junio en los recintos de Montjuïc y Gran Via de Fira de Barcelona, ha anunciado este jueves su cartel con la presencia de artistas como The Chemical Brothers, Arca, The Blaze, Richie Hawtin y Laurent Garnier, entre un centenar de espectáculos.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. the "now-showing" board in a cinema or playhouse

Derived terms

• cartelera
• cartelería
• cartelismo
• cartelista
• pegacarteles

 

Related terms

• carta

 

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English cartel, itself borrowed from German Kartell.

Noun

cartel m (plural carteles)

1. cartel (group of businesses that collude to limit competition)
2. criminal organization, mafia, mob

Alternative forms

• cártel

Further reading

• “cartel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10