Talk:артель
Etymology - uncertain[edit]
I updated Etymology from ruwiktionary, with their ru:Викисловарь:Список_литературы, here a quick, rough, partial translation:
The origin of the word is unclear. It was first written by Richard James in 1610 ("artele is a company of three or more people"), later found in Russian (in northern dialects), Ural and Siberian sources in the forms "artel, artel, artil".
According to one version, it comes from Italian artiere "craftsman", further from arte "art, craft", so it is related to the artist, but the use of this Italian core in Russia in the 17th century is very unlikely.
The next version connects the word with the Tatar orta ("community") or with the Turkish "spare people, reserve", but this is also doubtful, because early records indicate origin from Pomerania, not Ural, so these Turkish forms are apparently secondary.