The current suits emerged from a mixture of the Spanish and French versions: the names of the suits came from Spanish, but the graphic symbols that represent them are French. Until reaching the current 52-piece deck, cards have gone through a long history. Card games are believed to have emerged in China around the 10th century. In the 14th century, cards arrived in Europe taken by the Arabs, who adapted the Chinese deck.
The modern deck began to take shape in the 16th century with the 52-card set created by the French. At that time, several countries in Europe had local versions of the suits, such as the bats in Spain or the pine nuts in Germany. As the French suit logos were simpler and easier to print, they gained popularity and were adopted in other nations.
SAMBA DO CURINGA DOIDO
Current deck mixes Spanish, French and even Arabic influences
SPANISH PLAYING DECK
There are 48 cards, numbered from 1 to 9, and three face cards: jack (10), knight (11) and king (12). The names of the suits are almost identical in Portuguese and Spanish: oros, swords, cups and bastos («sticks»), representing merchants, military, religious and peasants.
FRENCH PLAYING DECK
There are 52 cards of four suits. The original names were carreaux («squares», which is equivalent to «diamonds»), pique («spearheads», our «swords»), coeurs («hearts», our «cups») and trèfles («clovers», our “sticks”). The knight was exchanged for the queen.
TO THE
It is not known which deck was the first to exchange the number 1 card for the ace, but many believe it was the German deck – in the French deck, the first card is the 1 itself. The word «ace» comes from Latin and means «a unit».
wild card
There are two explanations for the origin of the wild card. One is the “loco”, a card from the Italian deck without suit or number. Another version says that the joker has English origin and emerged in the 19th century from a card known as “imperial bower”, which beat all other cards.
NOBLE LETTERS
Figures have existed since the Arabs included courtiers such as the king, queen and valet (royal servant). Our figures came from France (jack, queen and king, V, D and R in the French deck), but we used the letters of the English deck: J comes from jack (“jack”, in English), Q from queen (“queen”) ) and K for king (“king”).