tarot
(tɑːrəʊ)
[F. tarot (also 16th c. tarault, tarau), ad. It. *tarocco (pl. tarocchi): see taroc.]
a. One of a set of playing-cards, first used in Italy in the 14th c. (Also used in fortune-telling.) Also attrib. b. pl. The game played with these.
The tarots, strictly speaking, are a series of 22 figured cards (21 of which are numbered), all being trumps, which are added to a set of 56 (in four suits), forming a pack of 78.
| 1598 G. de la Mothe French Alph. (1639) 148 Will you play at Tables, at Dyce, at Tarots, and Chesse? 1872 W. Skeen Early Typogr. 55 A single pack of ‘tarots’, admirably painted about 1415 by Marziano,..cost the enormous sum of 1500 golden crowns (about {pstlg}625). 1888 Chambers' Encycl. II. 763/1 No Spanish tarots are known to exist. 1899 Fortn. Rev. Oct. 611 Piot..was..the first to collect ‘Tarots’, those valuable playing cards, which now fetch such a high price. 1900 Pall Mall G. 18 Aug. 2 (Cassell Suppl.) As fall the Tarot cards, so fell Each rose⁓page of the Oracle. 1928 D. Byrne Destiny Bay vii. 319 An old woman crazed by gambling and tarot cards. 1957 L. Durrell Justine iii. 180 Justine..would sit cross-legged on the bed and begin to lay out the little pack of Tarot cards. 1972 Time 19 June 26/2 The Center also presents tarot-card readings. 1977 Jrnl. Playing-Card Soc. May 3 Some Milan card makers reached a high degree of technical and artistic quality, including specialisation in a particular type of Tarot pack, usually with a narrow format. |