"Pip"

Okay, I looked, and I cannot find the answer. My apologies if it does exist, buried in a thread somewhere...

My question is... WHY are the Minor Arcana referred to as "pips"!? It's been driving me nuts since I first saw it. Is it short hand/abbreviation for something?

While being relatively new to Tarot, I understand the difference between the Major and Minor Arcanas. I also understand that sometimes the Minor Arcanas do not have full "scene" imagry, just an icon for the suit and some indication of what number it is.

Is there a logic/reasoning for the "pip" term?

Please help!? Just one of those things making my head slightly explode... ;]

Before the Minor Arcana were called Minor Arcana they were Pips (not that long ago).

Pips are the 40 "small" cards in non-scenic or illustrated decks which are not Majors/Trumps and are not Courts ; i.e 2 Swords, 5 Cups, 8 Coins etc. (Oh actually, is an Ace considered a pip? For me it is, but you know how pedantic people can be )

So, basically it is to reference their "small" size (or lack) of imagery?
Like, as in "pip-squeak"?

I dunno about the tarot side, but when I was a kid and had never even HEARD of tarot, when we played whist and other such outdated games the non-court cards in a playing card deck were always called pips.... I am guessing to refer to the number of pips (small symbols) on them ?

OOH wiki agrees with me !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip_(counting)

"Pip" refers to the "dots".

Hi Everyone,
Gregory is correct. The word 'pip' refers to the symbols for the suits. On a regular deck of cards, the little club, heart, spade, or dimond icons are all pips. The early decks of cards didn't have a number on them, they just had six heart pips on the 6 of hearts card. There were two club pips on the two of clubs. You get the idea. The early Tarot decks used this same concept - three cups on the 3 of cups card, etc. Since the suit cards from 1-10 all had these pips on them, they were called the pip cards. As time passed, some decks started putting a more elaborate image on these cards but the name 'pip cards' still stands. A Tarot deck has 22 Majors, 16 Court cards, and 40 pip cards. Enjoy!

thanks!

Thank you everyone!

That really cleared up my confusion and frustration over the terminology. =]

When I was a child, I read in several books about a man who made a pipe bomb out of the red pips in a number of decks of playing cards, as part of a prison escape. It's the sort of story that I (like lots of boys) loved. And I felt really smart knowing that the hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds on playing cards were called "pips." I used the word in a sentence in front of my mother, who thought I was saying "pimps," and was mightily displeased. I wonder if boys still read that story. The red ink is no longer explosive, I think.

To be a bit more on topic: sometimes enthusiasts of the older decks will make a point of saying Trumps, Courts (or Honours), and Pips, because they identify the terms Major and Minor Arcana with the turn of the century Occultists and their views on Tarot. So sometimes, but not always, it's a hint as to the sorts of cards the writer favors. Sort of like a person used to contemporary American English might assume someone who says "fetus" is pro-choice, and someone who says "the unborn" is pro-life.

People who tend to avoid the terms Major and Minor Arcana also tend to avoid the suit names Pentacles and Wands, unless they're speaking of decks that specifically use those words. Please feel entirely free to think we're being silly. Rolling your eyes is not at all an inappropriate response.

Also - bit of trivia here - "pips" is also a word for "seeds," as the title of the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Five Orange Pips." (Pips from an orange, that is, not orange-colored pips.)

However, the term "pips" for spots on a playing card is NOT considered to be related to "pips" as in seeds. The seed "pips" comes from "pepin," probably meaning small thing, while the playing card "pips" comes from "peeps," which is "of unknown origin" (per the Online Etymology Dictionary).

Even so, I find it hard to imagine they're COMPLETELY unrelated. A playing card looks like it's got seeds scattered all over it. But then, stranger coincidences have happened.