Word Origin | Kırtâsiye

The 1910s were the most painful years of the Ottoman history as the war years, and during this decade, Hacı Kağıtçı Mehmed Sadık Efendi often came to mind for the stationery needs of the institutions. Bab-ı Âli Caddesi Number 109 became one of the addresses that attracted attention in all kinds of products, from pens to memo pads, pocket notebooks and even cardboard to envelopes, from stationery to anything. The payment orders issued for the purchases made at the Afitap Store give an idea about the economic conditions of the period. Nearly every document, even a few pens or notebooks purchased, was asked to be bought "by bargain". 

The following statements were frequently encountered in the documents related to the Afitap Store: "Twenty ink pens were bought and delivered from Hacı Kağıtçı Mehmed Sadık Efendi, from Bab-ı Ali Caddesi No. Moreover, what was bought from the Afitap Store would not only stay in Istanbul, but the stationery needs from all over the country would be met from here: "Paying the money for ten pocket notebooks purchased from the owner of the Afitap Store, Kağıtçı Mehmed Sadık Efendi, to be sent to the countryside..." Kırtasiye eventually a dual Kitap( bookstore)/ Kırtasiye(stationary) store.

See Afitap/ECE Story (Turkish)

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1910’lar, harp yılları olarak Osmanlı tarihinin en sancılı yıllarıydı ve bu on yıl boyunca kurumların kırtasiye ihtiyaçlarında Hacı Kâğıtçı Mehmed Sadık Efendi sıklıkla akla geliyordu. Kalemden bloknota, cep defterine hatta kartondan zarfa, “kırtasiyeden” dendiğinde anlaşılabilecek her türlü üründe Bab-ı Âli Caddesi 109 Numara dikkat çeken adreslerden biri olmuştu. Afitap Mağazası’ndan yapılan alışverişler için çıkarılan ödeme emirleri devrin ekonomik koşulları hakkında fikir vermektedir. Neredeyse her belgede, satın alınan birkaç kalem ya da defter bile olsa, “pazarlık suretiyle” satın alınması isteniyordu. Afitap Mağazası ile ilgili belgelerde sıklıkla şu tür ifadelere rastlanırdı: “Emniyet Müfettişliği’nin refakatinde müstahdem seyyar polis memurları için pazarlık suretiyle Bab-ı Ali Caddesi 109 Numaralı Afiap Mağazası Hacı Kâğıtçı Mehmed Sadık Efendi’den mubayaa olup teslim edilen yirmi adet mürekkepli kalem…”

Üstelik Afitap Mağazası’ndan alınanlar sadece İstanbul’da kalmaz, ülkenin dört bir yanından kırtasiye ihtiyacı buradan karşılanırdı: “Taşraya gönderilmek üzere Afitap Mağazası sahibi Kâğıtçı Mehmed Sadık Efendi'den satın alınan on adet cep defterinin parasının ödenmesi…”

Mavi Boncuk |

Kırtasiye | Kırtâsiye:  stationary EN[1] card EN[2]; fromAR ḳirṭās قرطاس papirüs kâğıt ~ Aramaic ḳarṭīsā קרטיסא papirüs oldGR χártēs χάρτης

(ﻗﺮﻃﺎﺳﻴّﻪ) i. AR. ḳirṭāsі “kâğıtla ilgili”den ḳırṭāsiyye

1. Kâğıt, kalem, defter, mürekkep, dosya vb. yazı malzemesi.
2. Resmî dâirelerdeki işlem ve yazışmalar: “Kırtâsiye çok vakit alıyor.” Bana kırtâsiye işlerinden başkası kalmadı (Reşat N. Güntekin).
3. Bir dâirede kâğıt ve yazı malzemeleri için ayrılan para: “Kırtâsiye faslından ödeme yapmak.”

Oldest source: kırtasiye "resmi dairelerde kâğıt ve yazı malzemesi için tahsis edilen ödenek" [ Kamus-ı Türki (1900) ]

kırtasiyeci "kâğıt ve yazı levazımı satan kişi, yazışmayı artırarak işi zorlaştıran memur" [ İbrahim Alaattin (Gövsa), Yeni Türk Lugatı (1930) ]

Originally, the term 'stationery' referred to all products sold by a stationer, whose name indicated that his book shop was on a fixed spot. This was usually somewhere near a university, and permanent, while medieval trading was mainly carried on by itinerant peddlers (including chapmen[*], who sold books) and others (such as farmers and craftsmen) at markets and fairs. 

It was a unique term used between the 13th and 15th centuries in the manuscript culture. Stationers' shops were places where books were bound, copied, and published. These shops often loaned books to nearby-university students for a fee. The books were loaned out in sections, allowing students to study or copy them, and the only way to get the next part of the book was to return the previous section.

 In some cases, stationers' shops became the preferred choice for scholars to find books, instead of university libraries due to stationers' shops' wider collection of books. 

[*] Old English céapmann was the regular term for "dealer, seller", cognate with the Dutch koopman with the same meaning. Old English céap meant "deal, barter, business". The modern adjective cheap is a comparatively recent development from the phrase a good cheap, literally "a good deal" (cf. modern Dutch goedkoop = cheap). The name of the Danish capital Copenhagen has a similar origin, being derived from Køpmannæhafn, meaning "merchants' harbour" or "buyer's haven".

By 1600, the word chapman had come to be applied to an itinerant dealer in particular, but it remained in use for "customer, buyer" as well as "merchant" in the 17th and 18th centuries. The slang term for man, "chap" arose from the use of the abbreviated word to mean a customer, one with whom to bargain.

[1] stationery (n.) 1727, from stationery wares (c. 1680) "articles sold by a stationer," from stationer "seller of books and paper" (q.v.) + -y (1).

stationary (adj.) late 14c., stacionarie, "having no apparent motion" (in reference to planets), from Old French stacioonaire "motionless" and directly from Latin stationarius, from the stem of statio "a standing, post, job, position" (see station (n.)). Meaning "unmovable" is from 1620s. In classical Latin, stationarius is recorded only in the sense "of a military station;" the word for "stationary, steady" being statarius.

[2] card (n.1) early 15c., "a playing card," from Old French carte (14c.), from Medieval Latin carta/charta "a card, paper; a writing, a charter," from Latin charta "leaf of paper, a writing, tablet," from Greek khartēs "layer of papyrus," which is probably from Egyptian. Form influenced by Italian cognate carta "paper, leaf of paper." Compare chart (n.). The shift in English from -t to -d is unexplained.

chart (n.) 1570s, "map for the use of navigators," from French charte "card, map," from Late Latin charta "paper, card, map" 

Charte is the original form of the French word in all senses, but after 14c. (perhaps by influence of Italian cognate carta), carte began to supplant it. English used both carte and card 15c.-17c. for "chart, map," and in 17c. chart could mean "playing card," but the words have gone their separate ways and chart has predominated since in the "map" sense. Meaning "sheet on which information is presented in a methodical or tabulated form" is from 1840; specifically in the music score sense from 1957.