Bassette

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A gambling card game of the eighteenth century, played against a banker much like faro, in which players wager on the outcome of cards drawn from a deck
2. An old betting game of chance, popular in fashionable European society, in which a banker deals cards and players stake money on them
3. A wagering card game from the 1700s in which participants bet against a dealer who turns cards from a shuffled pack

Etymology: The English noun came straight from French, where "bassette" is the name of a card game. Its root is the French adjective "bas," meaning "low," so the name points to a game with low stakes or a low-lying style of play, though the exact reason for the name is not something the record settles. French "bassette" is formed from "basse," the feminine of "bas," with a diminutive ending that makes the name sound small or modest. The pattern is common in French card-game names, where a suffix can mark a lighter variant of a larger game.

Synonyms: basset