origin of the name tarot

Yoav Ben-Dov

perhaps i am tarotically (see below) repeating known things, but i have not seen it anywhere, so:

it is an often-repeated statement that the name "tarot" is of unknown origin and etymology. there are some suggestions, all looking for something related to the cards. but..

in Kaplan's (1978) tarot encyclopedia (vol. 1, p. 28), the first use of the term tarocchi in print is cited from Francesco Berni (1526). berni refers to the tarochi as a "wonderful game", but also warns that "the only signification of the word tarocco is stupid, foolish, simple". from this citation it is not clear whether the use of tarocco for "stupid" comes before or after the use for designating the card game.

however, the recently published booklet "explaining the tarot" (maproom publications, oxford 2010) presents two 16th century essays on the meaning of the tarot cards, translated and commented by R.S Caldwell, T. Depaulis and M. Ponzi. in the first essay, a discorso by francesco piscina (1565), the author expresses his concern about the shortcomings of his essay, and uses a pun to say he is afraid some will say that:

un Taroccho ha favelatto e trattato de Tarocchi, e se si puo dire Tarocchamente ["a taroccho has tarotly (if i may say so) discussed and spoken of tarot"]. (pp. 28,29)

from here it may appear that in 16th century popular italian, the term tarccho could generally be used for "stupid, fool", not only in direct relation to the cards.

so here is my suggestion: perhaps this term existed independently of the cards, and then it was borrowed to designate the tarot cards as "the fool's cards? we could interpret this in berni's sense, "foolish are those who use the tarot". but it can also mean "the deck of cards with the fool in it", referring to the fool card. or perhaps we can see here some deeper hint about the special status of the fool (like in the new age concept of "the fool's journey" through the other cards). it is as if, so to speak, the fool would carry all the other cards in the sac on his shoulder..

does this make any sense? or nonsense? "the tarot cards" = "the fool's cards"?
 

Ross G Caldwell

I agree with the etymology (I think I'm the one who first proposed it, after Berni!), but I don't know WHY it was chosen. Your guess is as good as any.

My first guess was that it meant "crazy cards" or "nutty cards", referring to their size and number compared to a normal deck of cards.
 

l'appeso

here's an explanation

http://www.etimo.it/?term=taroccare

tarocco seems to stem from the verb "taroccare" which comes from latin altercari, to quarrell
(old italian altarocare) hence taroccare, used in the game with the meaning of answering with a stronger card.

nowadays we use the verb "taroccare" and the adjective "tarocco" to describe something unauthentic, or some kind of scam. this is a more modern usage however!
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

i am not sure i understand. notwithstanding the modern usage, if taroccho originally carries the meaning of "taking over" or something similar, how come it is used in the 16th century (at least between 1526 and 1565) as "stupid, foolish"? and why does berni insist that this is "the only signification of the word"?

on the other hand, i can imagine that "quarrel, shout angrily, howl" (as the etymo.it source seems to suggest - i dont speak italian, i rely here on google translate) could drift in meaning into "stupid, foolish". this would still make tarot "the stupid cards" or something similar.

now, it could indeed be "the crazy cards" for that. but in fact, what is so crazy about the tarot cards? there is one "crazy" card, which is the fool. the other cards with sequential numbers seem to behave quite orderly in the context of the game. so again, are we not at something like "this deck with the crazy card of the fool"?
 

l'appeso

We need to know if first came the verb "taroccare" or the noun "tarocco"...

If we refer to the verb in Italy there are some words used in informal/regional contexts that sound similar and have more or less the same meaning
"tavanare" (to trouble, to annoy) "truscare" (to cheat, to scheme) and so on...

just my guessing!
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

yes i guess we would need an expert on 16-th century popular italian idioms.. i dont know any.

so, at present, my own temporary conclusion is: it is possible that tarot cards are (originally) the fool's cards, but it cannot be known for certain. as a fool i can live with this. and i like it as a vision of the tarot.

thanks for the info!
 

gregory

Roderick Somerville told me once that he reckoned it came from the gilding - something like taroccare - to beat - as in tooling the gold into the (Visconti) cards.

I can't find where I wrote this down, so can some Italian speaker help me out here ?
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

hi gregory! hope you like using the cards.. if you do..

but, "tarot cards" = "the beaten cards"? i dont like this so much!

and, after all, we have two 16th century writers, 40 years apart, connect tarocchi with tarocco-fool and with nothing else. this is a strong link - at least they knew their italian. do we have such a primary-source grounding for any other hypothesis? i am asking because i really dont know.
 

gregory

All it would mean would be something quite literal - the cards which have had gold beaten into the design. You may as well say don't call them cards, as that's boring ! If you see what I mean !

And yes, I like your cards very much, though reading with TdM is not my strongest suit....