撲克牌可謂經久不衰、影響深遠。恐怕很少有人不知道這些紙牌的名字：紅桃，梅花，大王，小王……那麼，你知道這些名字是怎麼來的嗎？下面這篇短文將告訴你紙牌名字的起源。Todays playing cards got their names from a combination of namesinItalian and French decks of cards.
The French trimmed the Italian deck from 78 cards to 52cards,kept certain aspects of the Italian deck, and combined itwithaspects of their deck. The British adopted the new French deck,theAmericans followed suit, and the product of the changes theFrenchmade to their deck is the modern deck of cards.
Certain cards in todays playing cards, Italys tarots, orpicturecards, were used for both fortune telling and for cardgames, andmade up 22 of the Italian deck of 78 cards. Theremaining 56 cardswere number cards. One tarot card named ilmatto, or the fool, ispresent in todays deck as the joker.
The Italian deck had four suits, which represented thechalice,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,whichincluded the king, queen, knave, and 10 number cards in eachof thefour suits. They renamed the suits the spade, heart, diamond,andclub and the deck they created is the most common deck inusetoday.
deck: 一副（紙牌）
trim: 整理，修整
tarots
: 塔羅牌，佔卜用的紙牌
joker
: 紙牌中的王牌
baton
: 權杖
knave
: 流氓
chalice
: 聖餐杯
spade: 黑桃
heart: 紅桃
diamond: 方片
club
：梅花
(實習編輯:顧萍)