'Tarot' meaning 'hole-maker'?

ravenest

And I was trying to figure out how you 'heard something like' that claim. But granted ...you did write 'heard' and not 'read'.
 

gregory

I do think that the word Tarocchi may reference the marks made in the gold leaf such that it resembled the pitted skin of a certain kind of orange - the "tarocco orange," which name derives from a hammer technique (taroccata) to make marks in leather and metals.

That was what Roderick Somerville suggested to me many years ago. There's a verb for it too - taroccare, he said.
 

Cartomancer

Note however, 'tariere' a'boiste' means a 'wimble', which is
an 'auger', that is a hand tool for boring holes

Taraud: n.m - screw tap
Taraudage: n.m - tapping a hole for a screw; threaded hole
Tarauder (v) tap (a hole for a screw); (Literature) torment.

In Florio's Italian-English dictionary 'Fora' means not only outside,
abroad; but an auger [a borer, a piercer, a wimble].


So the relationship maybe to a game in which one 'pegs holes', ie, a point scoring game.

- Kwaw

My theory is that the Tarot trumps picture northern constellations that surround the north celestial pole and so words that describe Tarot as a boring auger or as a wimble are referring to the north celestial pole. The north celestial pole can also be thought of as a hole or a place that the stars in the sky spin around. That place in the sky pierces the celestial motion of the stars and planets by remaining stationary in relation to them. That place is now in the constellation Ursa Minor near the star Polaris. We can think of Polaris as the center of the screw. The north celestial pole can be seen as the tapping hole for a screw, or a hole that is threaded. The north pole may in fact be the peg hole of the celestial sky.

But also here a connection with the firmament [and thus the constellations].
- Kwaw

I don't understand the reference here except that my theory is that the word Tarot refers to the firmament and constellations that surround the north celestial pole.

sure, fair point... but I still feel the original premise of 'Tarot meaning hole-maker' is just a bit much of a stretch.

I think that the original premise of the word 'Tarot' was to connect it to the concept of 'hole-maker' because the Tarot cards picture constellations from the north celestial sky. This concept is somewhat discussed in the book Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend

available at:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hamlets_mill/hamletmill.htm

Some note that the French “tarot” also indicated a dice, having on every side many black holes, whose name could have passed to the game of cards.

If 'tarot' in French also means 'dice' then the connection between dice and tarot cards may have been important.

The question is; does anyone else have an opinion on the origin of the word tarot, is its basis, beginning , foundation and (yes, excuse me but I will use the word) bedrock?

If the word tarot and related words refer to what the tarot is, then an explanation of the word might be that it describes the region of the sky which the constellations revolve around. The Wheel card pictures several constellations revolving around the north celestial pole. People of those times could see the pictures on the cards and see the corresponding constellations in the night sky and they knew the sky revolved around a single point in the sky. Polaris is known as the peg of the heavens.

I do think that the word Tarocchi may reference the marks made in the gold leaf such that it resembled the pitted skin of a certain kind of orange - the "tarocco orange," which name derives from a hammer technique (taroccata) to make marks in leather and metals.

Did the hammer technique used to make marks in leather and metals make them look like stars or constellations? What was the appearance of taroccata hammer marks? If they looked like stars or constellations then the words used to describe the tarot might take names that refer to a celestial origin.

- Lance (Cartomancer)