How did the word cartoon come into development? And why do we have cartoons on TV but comics in the newspaper?

I get into trouble for saying 'cartoon' when it should be animation.....

From the French carton, 'drawing', from the Italian cartone, 'pasteboard'. In English it became narrowed to humorous drawings, often with captions. It's probably a regional thing, but sometimes cartoons will be used for comics. There are also political cartoons for the (usually) single drawings on the editorial pages of many US newspapers. In my idiolect, cartoon refers to single panel comics; multipanel comics are comics, short for comic strips, where comic is acting adjectivally.

what then do you call, f.i., animated theatrical features such as Loony Tunes cartoons?

What do you use as a term to identify the animated
movies like,Snow White, Fantasia, etc.

Cartoons

Yeah, me too

Good question. Animated features? Or either that or movies, one.

I guess I call them cartoons. There is the one
channel called "Cartoon Network", a Turner channel
I believe. And the newspapers editions I call 'comics'.
I'd say that pretty much describes what they are called
in this part of the country.

Thanks, F.

Any time, day or night, J. Don't call us, we'll call you.

Saturday morning cartoons were a staple growing up
when I did. I guess they are still on, but sure
look different. They don't "flow", but seem to be
stuck with only one part of the body moving: an arm,leg,
or mouth.

Your avatar looks like its out of a cartoon, Luke!

Anime?

I'll have to get back to you on that, but I think
I found it in Wiki.

I searched Wikipedia, but it is not there. I am sure
that is where I found it. Also went to Images, and
there are lots of them, but not mine. It might be
anime, as when I joined the site I had not done much
investigation into that genre. It looks like it is
part of a comic, or cartoon where he is part of a large
group like Titans or Justice League. But I follow neither
of those comics, so I cannot be certain. It is definitely
Robin #3, however.

Lemme at 'em, Candy, I'll take care of 'em. Animation is what you do to create a cartoon! ("The animation of that...uh, animation...is very, uh, animated.")

Sheesh, my computer went down a few days ago, I've resurrected an old clunker, and now I can't shut up, on any topic. I'll wind down soon.

Oh, yes: cartoon: at one point it was a drawing preliminary to another artwork, such as a painting, sculpture, stained glass window, or I think, architectural work. In my experience, (stress that, throughout this bloviation) yes, a cartoon is (usually) a single-panel, humorous drawing, with or without caption. The multi-panel stories are comic strips, a collection of them in a newspaper is comics, and a magazine-style publication of longer stories or serials is a comic book or comic, even if it's not intended to be humorous. Most of the short animated presentations, such as the Saturday-morning variety, are, like the single-panel cartoons, intended to make us laugh, and they share the name. The feature-length animated movies don't easily fit into the vernacular. They're animated like a cartoon, but they aren't necessarily, or primarily, designed solely to make us laugh, so I've noticed some reluctance to call them cartoons; yet no sane person wants to call them "animated feature-length motion pictures." I haven't done a study, but I would estimate that I've heard a division over the years of about one part cartoon, one part cartoon movie, and two parts animated movie. Let me emphasize the non-scientific nature of my results.

Peter

I like your answer Peter..now I have the ammunition to defend myself.

And these comic magizines have also grown into what today
are called, I believe, graphic novels.