Spades () () is one of the four playing card suits in the standard French-suited playing cards. It has the same shape as the leaf symbol in German-suited playing cards but its appearance is more akin to that of an upside down black heart with a stalk at its base. It symbolises the pike or halberd, two medieval weapons, but is actually an adaptation of the German suit symbol of Leaves created when French suits were invented around 1480.
In bridge, spades rank as the highest suit. In skat and similar games, it is the second-highest suit.
Name
The word "Spade" is probably derived from the Old Spanish spada meaning "sword" and suggests that Spanish suits were used in England before French suits.
The French name for this suit, ("pike"), meant, in the 14th century, a weapon formed by an iron spike placed at the end of a pike.
In four-colour packs Spades may be:
- black <span style="background-color: white !important;">20px|♠</span> in English bridge and poker packs and French and Swiss four-colour packs,
- green 16px|♠ in German skat tournament packs or
- blue 16px|♠ in some American poker decks
Coding
The symbol ♠ is already in the computer code set CP437 and therefore also part of Windows WGL4. In Unicode a black ♠ and a white ♤ spade are defined:
See also
- Spades (card game)
References
Literature
- Allan, Elkan and Hannah Mackay (2007). The Poker Encyclopedia. London: Portico.
- Dummett, Sir Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. Duckworth, London.
- Parlett, David (2008). The Penguin Book of Card Games. London, New York, Toronto: Penguin.