Zettel.

From Early New High German zeddel, zedel, from Middle High German zëdele, zëdel, a loan from Italian cedola, from Medieval Latin cedula, schedula, the diminutive of scheda, scida (“strip of papyrus”) ultimately from Ancient Greek σχίδη (skhídē, “splinter, fragment”). Cognate to Low German Zeddel, Palatine Rhine Franconian Zeddel, English schedule. The spelling with -tt- was found from the 15th century in Upper German; the spelling with -dd- persisted until the 19th century, primarily in authors from Central or Northern Germany. Luther mostly writes zedel, Goethe alternates between zeddel and zettel. The (now obsolete) spelling variant zettul is influenced by French cédule. Occasional weak inflection was found in Middle High German and persisted into the 18th century. The original feminine gender was retained until Luther's time, but occasional masculine or neuter gender was found by the late Middle High German period. The masculine gender has predominated since the 19th century.

A technical term in weaving recorded from the later 15th century (in Middle High German in the compound zettelgarn). The noun is derived from the verb zetten (“scatter; spread out, arrange”) via the suffix -el denoting tools (as in Hebel, Stößel). The verb zetten itself is from Proto-Germanic *tadjaną (“to strew, scatter”), whence also English tath (“dung”). In German translations of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream the name of the weaver Nick Bottom (one of the “rude mechanicals,” from bottom (“ball or skein of thread”) replaced by a German technical term of weaving following Christoph Martin Wieland, 1762).