Re: [romconlang] -able

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 4:25 PM, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:
>  What I evidently THOUGHT you wrote about was the definition
>  of spade that's a sword (doesn't that come from French?  And
>  wasn't it swords in the Tarot deck that became spades in playing
>  cards?).
The French deck doesn't actually descend from Tarot; rather it and
Tarot have a common ancestor.    Europe had playing cards of the
modern variety for a good century before Tarot was invented.

The earliest playing cards in Europe came from the Egyptian Mamelukes;
they were much the same as the modern 52-card pack, with the four
suits Sticks (Batons), Swords (Scimitars), Coins (Disks, Pentacles),
and Cups.  Those same suits were adopted as-is in most of Italy, where
Tarot was invented.  European cardmakers in other areas varied the
suit scheme, often by reinterpreting (or misinterpreting) the
iconography. So Sticks/Batons became Clubs (the synonymous variety)
before becoming the modern abstract symbol.   The Germans changed them
to Acorns.  Cups became Hearts.  Swords became Spades, which went on
to become Leaves in Germany.


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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