Last week I had a look at the word ‘illustration’. This week to stay in the same world I want to tell you the story about the word ‘cartoon’, because the reading I did last week reminded me of this great little story. The word histories of illustration and cartoon are quite different but they have common players. The word cartoon for a comic illustration is quite modern having been used since the 1840s.
Word origin of carton
A clue in the story is the similarity between ‘cartoon’ and ‘carton’. These words are descended from the same parent. ‘Carta’ was Medieval Latin word for paper. Pasteboard (i.e. similar to cardboard) was known as ‘cartone’ in Italian or ‘carton’ in French. This thick board was used by artists to do their preliminary sketches for their paintings. And hence the sketches were also known as ‘cartones’. This pasteboard was also was used for making boxes and in the 1890s the boxes themselves became known as cartons.
Word origin of cartoon
The term ‘cartoon’ to refer to comic drawings was first used in the English satirical magazine Punch in 1843. Punch magazine is named after the Punch character of Punch and Judy. Punch is the British equivalent of the Italian clown Pulcinella. A Punch and Judy puppeteer (known traditionally as a professor or a punchman) has described Punch as the ‘spirit of Britain – a subversive maverick who defies authority’. The Punch character appears as the logo of the magazine and often in the political cartoons. Punch represents a sometimes sceptical observer to the state of Britain often anthropomorphised as John Bull. The cartoon I have used to lead this post shows Punch as a visiting GP to an ailing John Bull representing Britain.
The British Houses of Parliament were at the time to be decorated with murals. The preliminary sketches (i.e. in Italian the ‘cartones’) were displayed to the public. So Punch on 24 June 1843 makes a comparison between the sketches depicting Parliament (as the home of Britain’s politicians) and the magazine’s political cartoons with this statement:
Punch has the benevolence to announce, that in an early number of his ensuing Volume he will astonish the Parliamentary Committee by the publication of several exquisite designs, to be called Punch’s Cartoons!
Animated cartoons
The use of ‘cartoon’ for animated film (from 1911) has been closely associated with Zenas Winsor McCay (1871–1934) a highly talented American newspaper cartoonist and pioneer animator. He was recognised by Walt Disney as the pioneer of animated film.
Why cartoon?
The change from “cartone” to “cartoon” mimics an old English spelling convention that emphasises borrowed foreign words such as French words ending in a stressed -on; Italian -one, or Spanish -ón. Some well known examples are ‘saloon’ from French ‘salon’, meaning a large room; ‘balloon’ from Italian ‘pallone’ for large inflated leather ball; and ‘macaroon’ from French ‘macaron’ for a small sweet cake made of ground almonds. And one most relevant ‘lampoon’ from the French word ‘lampon’ for a personal insult (thought to come from a word for insulting drinking songs).
