▪ I. monte1
(ˈmɒnteɪ)
Also monty.
[a. Sp. monte mountain; heap or stock of cards left after each player has his share.]
1. a. A Spanish and Spanish-American game of chance, played with a pack of forty-five cards. three-card monte, a game of Mexican origin, played with three cards only one of which is usually a court-card.
| 1824 J. R. Poinsett Notes on Mexico (1825) iii. 37 We found a numerous assembly of men gambling deeply, at a game called monte. 1850 B. Taylor Eldorado I. xii. 80 They are playing monte, the favorite game in California. 1876 Besant & Rice Gold. Butterfly Prol. ii, I thought we should find a choice hotel, with a little monty or poker afterwards. 1877 Black Green Past. xiii, Five-Ace Jack received a liberal percentage from the three card-monte men who entertained these innocent folks. 1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin 66 ‘Do you want to play monte?’ he asked. Ibid. 144 He..was eight hundred [dollars] ahead once. But he played it off at monté. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as monte-banker, monte blanket, monte card, monte game, monte operator, monte table, etc.; monte-bank, a monte table; also used as the name of the game itself.
| a 1861 T. Winthrop Life in Open Air (1863) 128 A background of mustangs, monte-banks, and lynch-law. 1939 T. King 21 Games to play for Money 27 To take its [sc. Faro's] place, Monte Bank has come into being. |
| 1855 F. S. Marryat Mts. & Molehills xiv. 267, I was soon asleep, notwithstanding..the clinkings of the monté-bankers, and the noise of the crowd below. |
| 1898 H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 78 His long and angular shadow fell across the monte blanket spread flat upon the ground. |
| 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 356/3 ‘Spanish Monte Cards’, 48 cards in pack, assortment of black and colors. |
| 1899 T. W. Hall Tales 276 Judge Leander Quinn was lured away from a monte game with a couple of buck Indians. |
| 1961 J. Scarne Compl. Guide to Gambling xix. 520 Countless Monte operators plied their trade on the steamboats of the Ohio and Mississippi..in the 1850s. |
| 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West iv. 92 We take our stand near the monte table, where a considerable crowd gathers. 1889 K. Munroe Golden Days ii. 15 This influx of gold caused monte-tables, and other gambling layouts, to spring up. |
2. (See monty.)
▪ II. ‖ monte2
(ˈmonte)
[Sp.: lit. ‘mountain’.]
In Spanish-American countries: A more or less wooded tract; a small forest.
| 1856 [see Montaña1]. 1879 Encycl. Brit. IX. 406/2 The montes of Uruguay are of no commercial value. |
▪ III. monte
obs. form of mount.