[F. tarot (also 16th c. tarault, tarau), ad. It. *tarocco (pl. tarocchi): see prec.] a. One of a set of playing-cards, first used in Italy in the 14th c. (Also used in fortune-telling.) Also attrib. b. pl. The game played with these.
The tarots, strictly speaking, are a series of 22 figured cards (21 of which are numbered), all being trumps, which are added to a set of 56 (in four suits), forming a pack of 78.
1598. G. de la Mothe French Alph. (1639) 148 Will you play at Tables, at Dyce, at Tarots, and Chesse?
1872. W. Skeen, Early Typogr., 55. A single pack of ‘tarots,’ admirably painted about 1415 by Marziano,… cost the enormous sum of 1500 golden crowns (about £625).
1888. Chambers’ Encycl., II. 763/1. No Spanish tarots are known to exist.
1899. Fortn. Rev., Oct., 611. Piot …. was … the first to collect ‘Tarots,’ those valuable playing cards, which now fetch such a high price.
1900. Pall Mall G., 18 Aug., 2 (Cassell, Suppl.). As fall the Tarot cards, so fell Each rose-page of the Oracle.
