Crosswordese.Com



Word of the Day - Thursday, December 3rd

Contact Us

 


Home

Word of the Day

Archives

Clever Clue of the Month

The Cruciverbalist

Links

Daily Email







TREY (tray)

A card, die, or domino with three pips

Common clues: Deuce topper; Part of the lowest possible straight; Low card; Rare trick taker;

Crossword puzzle frequency: 3 times a year

Video: The amazing three of clubs

A playing card is a typically hand-sized piece of heavy paper or thin plastic. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. A deck of cards is used for playing one of many card games, some of which constitute gambling. Because they are both standard and commonly available, playing cards are often adapted for other uses, such as magic tricks, cartomancy, encryption, boardgames, or building a house of cards.




In early games the kings were always the highest card in their suit. However, as early as the late 14th century special significance began to be placed on the nominally lowest card, now called the Ace, so that it sometimes became the highest card and the Two, or Deuce, the lowest. This concept may have been hastened in the late 18th century by the French Revolution, where games began being played "ace high" as a symbol of lower classes rising in power above the royalty. The term "Ace" itself comes from a dicing term in Anglo-Norman language, which is itself derived from the Latin as (the smallest unit of coinage). Another dicing term, trey (3), sometimes shows up in playing card games.

 

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Playing card"