Spades (suit)

The word "Spade" is probably derived from the Old Spanish spada meaning "sword" and suggests that Spanish suits were used in England before French suits. The French name for this suit, ("pike"), meant, in the 14th century, a weapon formed by an iron spike placed at the end of a pike. In German it is known as . It corresponds to the suit of leaves (, , or, in Bavaria, ) in the German-suited playing cards. In Switzerland, the suit is known as Schuufle ('shovel') and in many German regions, e.g., the Rhineland, as Schüppe/Schippe ('shovel'). == Characteristics ==

The spade symbol is a very stylized spearhead shape, pointing upwards, the bottom widening into two arcs of a circle and sweeping towards the centre to then form a sort of foot. Generally, spades are black so they can be used in some games as a pair with Clubs (suit), like Klondike (solitaire). They form one of the two major suits in bridge (with hearts). In the official skat tournament deck, spades are green, assuming the color of their German-deck equivalent. The following gallery shows the spades in a standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards. Not shown is the Knight of Spades used in Tarot card games: File:01 of spades A.svg|Ace File:02 of spades.svg|2 File:03 of spades.svg|3 File:04 of spades.svg|4 File:05 of spades.svg|5 File:06 of spades.svg|6 File:07 of spades.svg|7 File:08 of spades.svg|8 File:09 of spades.svg|9 File:10 of spades - David Bellot.svg|10 File:Jack of spades fr.svg|Jack File:Queen of spades fr.svg|Queen File:King of spades fr.svg|King == Four-colour packs ==

s of a Four-color deck; here, Spades are black Four-color decks are sometimes used in tournaments or online. In four-colour packs Spades may be: • black in English bridge and poker packs and French and Swiss four-colour packs, • green in German skat tournament packs or • blue in some American poker decks == Coding ==

The symbol ♠ is already in the computer code set CP437 and therefore also part of Windows WGL4. In Unicode a black ♠ and a white ♤ spade are defined: ==See also==

• Allan, Elkan and Hannah Mackay (2007). The Poker Encyclopedia. London: Portico. • Dummett, Sir Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. Duckworth, London. • Parlett, David (2008). The Penguin Book of Card Games. London, New York, Toronto: Penguin.