tarot
[tar-oh, ta-roh]
- any of a set of 22 playing cards bearing allegorical representations, used for fortunetelling and as trump cards in tarok.
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Origin of tarot
1590–1600; back formation from taros (plural) < Middle French < Italian tarocchi, plural of tarocco
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tarot
Contemporary Examples
Dusty books, smoking pipes, tarot cards, and a Ouija board fill the antique furniture positioning any object as a clue.
Kanye West gets his tarot cards read by a radical Chilean filmmaker is practically a fully formed SNL sketch.
Lennon and Ono made many decisions based on astrology and the reading of tarot cards.
Mama Donna, Urban Shaman I did a tarot card reading for Tiger.
Historical Examples
This is recalled in the Atout of the Tarot pack, named Justice.
Prophetical, Educational and Playing CardsMrs. John King Van Rensselaer
The oldest specimens of Tarot cards are not later than 1440.
The Illustrated Key to the TarotL. W. de Laurence
Amongst the plates there is a monogram of the Gnosis, which is also that of the Tarot.
The Illustrated Key to the TarotL. W. de Laurence
The Tarot is said to have originated in India, whence it passed to Egypt.
The Illustrated Key to the TarotL. W. de Laurence
It is interesting, however, as containing the writer's first reveries on the Tarot.
The Illustrated Key to the TarotL. W. de Laurence
tarot
- one of a special pack of cards, now used mainly for fortune-telling, consisting of 78 cards (4 suits of 14 cards each (the minor arcana), and 22 other cards (the major arcana))
- a card in a tarot pack with distinctive symbolic design, such as the Wheel of Fortune
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- relating to tarot cards
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Word Origin
C16: from French, from Old Italian tarocco, of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tarot
n.
1590s, from French tarot (16c.), from Old Italian tarocchi (plural), of unknown origin, perhaps from Arabic taraha "reject." The deck first used in Italy 14c., as playing cards as well as for fortune-telling. The tarots, strictly speaking, are the 22 figured cards added to the 56-card suits pack.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper