origin of the name tarot

Kali Kitty

And if I am a damn fool so be it.

*puts dunce hat on with resigned sigh*
 

l'appeso

I was thinking about the "fool" meaning and maybe it could be that the verb "taroccare" is "to fool someone" and "tarocco" is the one that actually gets fooled...
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

could be! google translate does not recognize taroccare, but wiktionary gives it as "fake". still, if we go with the spirit of berni's text, is the tarot player a fool because he is given fake cards? or is it simply because it is foolish to gamble?
 

l'appeso

also in this meaning taroccare/tarocco is a common word nowadays, used to describe fake products made to fool simpletons
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

yes, this makes sense.. still i dont get it. tarocchi appears in the 16th century to designate this special kind of cards, distinct from normal playing cards. why should tarot cards be more fake then usual playing cards? or for that matter, why should gambling with them be more stupid?

i still think it is more reasonable to think that the connection is through "the deck with the fool card". remember that usual playing cards did not have the joker then.
 

Kali Kitty

yes, this makes sense.. still i dont get it. tarocchi appears in the 16th century to designate this special kind of cards, distinct from normal playing cards. why should tarot cards be more fake then usual playing cards? or for that matter, why should gambling with them be more stupid?

i still think it is more reasonable to think that the connection is through "the deck with the fool card". remember that usual playing cards did not have the joker then.

So, playing cards are derived from tarot cards, and the name was to distinguish them from the normal cards as the ones with the fool? That makese sense and yet there seems no end to the tunnel of possibilities... lol.
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

i believe that playing cards came first.. but otherwise yes. the deck with the fool card or something like that. which you can play with, once you pass from normal history into tarot reality worldview, and make "the fool's cards". i tried it on people in my workshops and their response was good.
 

Kali Kitty

i believe that playing cards came first.. but otherwise yes. the deck with the fool card or something like that. which you can play with, once you pass from normal history into tarot reality worldview, and make "the fool's cards". i tried it on people in my workshops and their response was good.

Well then, to my mind your original postulate does make sense.. and I like this thinking. :) I shall remember it.
 

l'appeso

yes, this makes sense.. still i dont get it. tarocchi appears in the 16th century to designate this special kind of cards, distinct from normal playing cards. why should tarot cards be more fake then usual playing cards? or for that matter, why should gambling with them be more stupid?

i still think it is more reasonable to think that the connection is through "the deck with the fool card". remember that usual playing cards did not have the joker then.

sorry for my clumsy explanation, I didn't mean to say that tarot cards are fake,

Maybe the people who used them could be defined as con-men, trickster, swindlers and the like always looking for the next poor "tarocco" da taroccare, a chicken ripe to be plucked.

so tarocco = fool in the sense of "a fool and his money are easily parted".

http://culturalblog.it/wp-content/uploads/02-giocatori-di-carte-caravaggio.jpg