whist
pronunciation
How to pronounce whist in British English:
UK [wɪst]
How to pronounce whist in American English:
US [hwɪst, wɪst]
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- Noun:
- a card game for four players who form two partnerships; a pack of 52 cards is dealt and each side scores one point for each trick it takes in excess of six
Word Origin
- whist
- whist: [17] The game of whist was originally called whisk, and it is generally assumed that the name came from the ‘whisking’ away of the cards after the tricks had been taken (whisk [14] itself was borrowed from a Scandinavian source that went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *wisk- ‘move quickly’). Charles Cotton, however, in his Complete Gamester 1680, said that it was ‘called Whist from the silence that is to be observed in the play’ (whist is also a now archaic exclamation meaning ‘be quiet!’).
- whist (n.)
- card game for four, 1660s, alteration of whisk, name of a kind of card game, alluded to as early as 1520s, perhaps so called from the notion of "whisking" up cards after each trick, and thus from whisk (v.). Altered perhaps on assumption that the word was an interjection invoking silence, by influence of whist "silent" (15c.).
Example
- 1. Are you in for this game of whist ?
- 2. I am not your drinking companion , nor your whist partner .
- 3. You know scarlett was giving a big whist party yesterday afternoon with all those common ordinary women there .
- 4. Bridge , poker and whist are card-games .
- 5. Whist is my favourite card game .