"card (bank card)" in seven languages

Meaningcard (bank card)

Spanish

tarjeta

/taɾˈxeta/

fem.other source · French targette 'small shield' (targe, from Frankish *targa)

Carta is a letter, a menu or a playing card.

French

carte

/kaʁt/

fem.learned

Italian

carta

/ˈkarta/

fem.inherited

Carta is also 'paper'; an ID or membership card is a tessera.

Portuguese

cartão

/kahˈtɐ̃w/

masc.inherited

Built on carta 'letter' with the augmentative -ão, as Italian cartone on carta.

Romanian

card

/kard/

neut.borrowed · English card

Catalan

targeta

/tərˈʒɛtə/

fem.other source · French targette 'small shield' (targe, from Frankish *targa)

English

card

/kɑɹd/

from Latin/French · French carte

English → Italiancard (bank card)cartaCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

Watch out: false friends

carta (Spanish) means “letter (mail); menu” · carta (Italian) means “paper; card”
Both from Latin CHARTAM 'sheet of papyrus'. Italian kept the material; Spanish the thing written on it. French carte is 'card, map, menu'.

CHARTAM‘sheet of papyrus (Greek chártēs)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

French and Italian pay with the Latin 'paper sheet'; Spanish pays with a little shield, tarjeta. Spanish carta is the trap: it is a letter.

English relatives: chart, charter, cartoon, cartel