Tarocchi

Tarocchi, singular tarocco, is the Italian name for tarot cards and the game played with them. The cards were first called carte da trionfi, cards of the triumphs, from the 1440s; the new word appears in Ferrara records from about 1505, apparently to tell the game apart from other triumph games. Where it comes from is not known, and the guesses linking it to Egyptian or Hebrew roots are later inventions. From tarocco came the French tarot and the German Tarock. Today tarocchi also names Italian-made decks and local games such as Bologna's tarocchini. See the tarot card game and the Visconti-Sforza tarot.