How did playing cards get their names?
Today's playing cards got their names from a combination of names in
Italian and French decks of cards.
The French trimmed the Italian deck from 78 cards to 52 cards, kept
certain aspects of the Italian deck, and combined it with aspects of
their deck. The British adopted the new French deck, the Americans
followed suit, and the product of the changes the French made to their
deck is the modern deck of cards.
Certain cards in today's playing cards, Italy's tarots, or picture
cards, were used for both fortune telling and for card games, and made
up 22 of the Italian deck of 78 cards. The remaining 56 cards were
number cards. One tarot card named "il matto," or the fool, is present
in today's deck as the joker.
The Italian deck had four suits, which represented the chalice, the
sword, money, and the baton, and four "court" cards, the king, queen,
knight, and knave.
Of the 56 cards in the Italian deck, the French kept 52, which
included the king, queen, knave, and 10 number cards in each of the
four suits. They renamed the suits the spade, heart, diamond, and club
and the deck they created is the most common deck in use today.
|
|