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Spades (suit)

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♠

Spades is one of the four suits found in playing cards. In Bridge, it ranks highest out of the four suits (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades). It is typically associated with death.

1 Origin and meaning of the symbol
2 Сodes of symbol
3 Example cards
4 See also

The symbol was first used on French playing cards, made in Rouen and Lyon in the 15th Century (at a time that playing cards are mass-produced by the use of woodcuts). The suits were based on the four major economic classes on the late middle ages; Spades (a sharp weapon) represented the Military, Hearts represented the Church, Clubs (a leaf) represented agriculture, and Diamonds represented trade merchants.

In the Germanic countries was the symbol associated with the blade of a spade - and in all Germanic languages is the name of the tool and the suit identical. (In German and Dutch is the suit also, alternately, named Schüppen and schoppen 'shovel'.)

It is often stated that the suit is named after Spanish espada 'sword', but this is probably not likely. In Germany and Scandinavia, Spanish playing cards were not in use, and Spanish loanwords in these languages were very rare at all. (It should also be noted that the Spanish name for the French suit is picas - not espadas.)

In some parts of Britain, namely the West Midlands, the suit 'spades,' can be known as 'cabbages,' or 'cabbage-leaf,' which is a direct correlation with the German suit.

German suits: leaves (German: Laub, Blatt, Gras, Grün) .