Chambers Dictionary - d'oh!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 31 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

f. silvestris	31 Mar 2005
I've updated my Chambers Dictionary to a recent printing of the 1998 edition. Here's the entry on Tarot: "a card of a type originating in Italy with an allegorical picture; a set consisting of 100 such cards used in card games and esp. fortune telling; (usu. in pl.) a game played with tarots together with cards of the ordinary suits." So that's, like, a hundred trumps plus, er, 13 each clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. I'm so glad someone told me before I started work in earnest on my Mystic Felis Oracle Deck. What makes this really bad is comparison with my old Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (1929 reprint of the 1901 edition): "a kind of playing-card used, and probably invented, in Italy about the middle of the 14th century, 78 to the pack: a game played with such." Wot went rong? Any lexicographers here?

f. silvestris	31 Mar 2005
ps. I've just checked Chambers' online dictionary, which is as follows - tarot noun 1 a pack of 78 playing-cards consisting of four suits of 14 cards and a fifth suit of 22 trump cards, now used mainly in fortune-telling. 2 any of the 22 trump cards in this pack, which are decorated with allegorical pictures. ETYMOLOGY: 16c: French, from Italian tarocco.

Hazelsdottir	31 Mar 2005
I have a copy of the Chambers Dictionary, too. This one is copyright 1993-4 and the listing for "Tarot" is exactly the same as your 1998 edition, i.e. "a set consisting of 100 such cards used in card games and esp. fortune telling..." That's rather appalling, frankly. On the other hand, I do have considerable affection for the Chambers Dictionary in general, mainly because on the spine it describes itself as: "The First Choice of Many." Not even "The First Choice of MOST". _Many_, forsooth! Don't you just love the understated pride in that claim? LOL!! Hazelsdottir, A Good Reader to Some

Dave's Angel	03 Apr 2005
Take heart everyone. "Tarot: A pack of 78 cards used in fortune telling." (The Little Oxford Dictionary, 6th edition 1986). Avoids saying anything wrong by... avoiding saying anything much at all to be honest... :)

Fulgour	03 Apr 2005
The Encyclopaedia Britannica is actually very good. :)

The Chambers Dictionary - d'oh! thread was originally posted on 31 Mar 2005 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.