Decks

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /dɛks/

Definitions

1. A set of playing cards, often used in games or magic tricks
2. multiple layers or platforms of a structure, typically in ships or buildings
3. a collection of recorded music tracks usually organized for playback

Etymology: The "deck" in "decks" began as a covering for a roof, not a stack of playing cards. Middle English "dekke" was borrowed from Middle Dutch "dec", meaning roof or covering, which came from the verb "decken", "to cover". That verb descends from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to roof or cover", and it is a close relative of the German "Decke", still meaning covering or blanket. The English word "thatch" and the older "thack" come from the same ancestor, so a deck and a thatched roof are distant cousins. The leap from covering to ship's floor happened at sea. A deck was the planked covering over a ship's hull, and the sense of a level or floor on a vessel followed from that. Playing cards entered the picture later: a pack of cards was called a deck because the cards were kept stacked and covered, one on another, like the layers of a deck. The card sense is a figurative extension of the nautical one rather than a separate word.

Synonyms: levels, floors, platforms