Hearts (suit)
Hearts | |
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Native names | |
Decks | |
Invented | 15th century |
Hearts (♥, ) (French: Cœur, German: Herz) is one of the four playing card suits in a deck of French-suited and German-suited playing cards. However, the symbol is slightly different: is used in a French deck while is used in a German deck.
This suit was invented in 15th century Germany and is a survivor from a large pool of experimental suit signs created to replace the Latin suits. The French design was created around 1480 when French suits were invented and was a simplified version of the existing German suit symbol for hearts in a German-suited pack.[1]
In Swiss-suited playing cards, the equivalent suit is Roses, typically with the following suit symbol: .
Name[edit]
In Bridge, for which in Germany the French deck is common, it is called by its French name, Cœur. In games using German-suited cards the suit of Hearts is often called "Red" (Rot), e.g. the Unter of Hearts would be the "Red Unter" (Rotunter or Rot-Unter) and the Nine of Hearts the "Red Nine" (Rotneun or Rot-Neun). In the game of Watten, the King of Hearts is the highest Trump. In Tiến Lên, Hearts are the highest-ranked suit.
The origin of the term "heart" to describe the symbol, which only very marginally resembles a true heart, is not known.[2] In general, equivalents in other languages also mean "heart".
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The heart in German suited cards
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The heart in French suited cards
Characteristics[edit]
The heart typically has a form of cardioid, the lower part of which ends in a point. The symbol is drawn with its tip down, the two lobes of the cardioid pointing upwards. Generally, the hearts are coloured red.
French pattern[edit]
The following gallery shows the hearts of a standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards. Not shown is the Knight of Hearts, used in tarot card games:
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2
German pattern[edit]
The gallery below shows a suit of Hearts from a German-suited playing cards of 32 cards. The pack is of the Saxonian pattern:
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7
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8
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9
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10
Four-colour packs[edit]
Four-color decks are sometimes used in tournaments or online.[3] In such packs Hearts may be:
Coding[edit]
The symbol ♥ is already in the CP437 and therefore also in the WGL4. In Unicode, a black heart ♥ and a white ♡ heart are defined:
Symbol | Unicode | Entity in HTML |
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♥ | U+2665 BLACK HEART SUIT | ♥ or ♥
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♡ | U+2661 WHITE HEART SUIT | ♡
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Example from Dingbats for one of the other forms of heart: | ||
❤ | U+2764 HEAVY BLACK HEART | ❤
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See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Dummett, Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth. pp. 10–32.
- ^ K. McDonell (13 February 2007). "The Shape of My Heart - Where did the ubiquitous Valentine's symbol come from?". Slate.
- ^ Allan, Elkan; Mackay, Hannah (2007). The poker encyclopedia. London: Portico. p. 155. ISBN 978-1906-03209-8.