FW: "Jass" card game in 1911 (from Barry Popik)

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Thu Mar 22 04:07:06 UTC 2012


On 3/21/2012 10:16 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"<gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      FW: "Jass" card game in 1911 (from Barry Popik)
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>
> .... And tangentially, what is the origin of the name of the Swiss card game?
--

_Kluge Etymologishes Wörterbuch_, 24th ed.:

<<Jaß _Sm_ (schweizerishes Kartenspiel) _per. schwz._ (19. Jh.).
Vermutlich durch Schweizer Söldner aus dem Niederländischen eingeführt;
dort ist _jas_ eine Spielkarte (Trumpfbauer). Weitere Herkunft
umstritten; vielleicht gekürzt aus nndl. _paljas_ "Hanswurst, Bajazzo"
(mit Rücksicht auf Kartenbezeichnungen wie südndl. _zot_ "Narr", nfrz.
_fou_ "Narr").>>

I guess the name of the game comes from Dutch, from the name of a trump
card (a jack). "Possible" further derivation from "paljas" (something
like "pagliaccio" = "clown", I guess).

(Right now I don't offhand see any reason to connect this "Jass" with
English "jazz", myself.)

-- Doug Wilson

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