"photograph portrait mounted on a 3.5-inch-by-2.5-inch card," 1861, French, literally "visiting card," from carte (see card (n.1)) + visite, from visiter (see visit (v.)).

c. 1500, revisiten, "to visit (a place) again, return to," from Old French revisiter and directly from Latin revisitare; see re- + visit (v.). Related: Revisited; revisiting; revisitation.

c. 1300, "a visit by an ecclesiastical representative to examine the condition of a parish, abbey, etc.," from Anglo-French visitacioun, Old French visitacion and directly from Latin visitationem (nominative visitatio), noun of action from past participle stem of visitare (see visit (v.)). The supernatural sense of "a sight, apparition, a coming of God to a mortal" is attested from mid-14c.

late 14c., from Anglo-French visitour, Old French visiteor "visitor, inspector," from visiter (see visit (v.)). Sports sense is from 1900.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to see."

It forms all or part of: advice; advise; belvedere; clairvoyant; deja vu; Druid; eidetic; eidolon; envy; evident; guide; guidon; guise; guy (n.1) "small rope, chain, wire;" Gwendolyn; Hades; history; idea; ideo-; idol; idyll; improvisation; improvise; interview; invidious; kaleidoscope; -oid; penguin; polyhistor; prevision; provide; providence; prudent; purvey; purview; review; revise; Rig Veda; story (n.1) "connected account or narration of some happening;" supervise; survey; twit; unwitting; Veda; vide; view; visa; visage; vision; visit; visor; vista; voyeur; wise (adj.) "learned, sagacious, cunning;" wise (n.) "way of proceeding, manner;" wisdom; wiseacre; wit (n.) "mental capacity;" wit (v.) "to know;" witenagemot; witting; wot.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit veda "I know;" Avestan vaeda "I know;" Greek oida, Doric woida "I know," idein "to see;" Old Irish fis "vision," find "white," i.e. "clearly seen," fiuss "knowledge;" Welsh gwyn, Gaulish vindos, Breton gwenn "white;" Gothic, Old Swedish, Old English witan "to know;" Gothic weitan "to see;" English wise, German wissen "to know;" Lithuanian vysti "to see;" Bulgarian vidya "I see;" Polish widzieć "to see," wiedzieć "to know;" Russian videt' "to see," vest' "news," Old Russian vedat' "to know."