Hearts (suit)
Hearts | |
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Native names | |
Decks | |
Invented | 15th century |
Hearts (♥, ) (French: Cœur, German: Herz) is one of the four playing card suits in a deck of French-suited and German-suited playing cards. However, the symbol is slightly different: is used in a French deck while is used in a German deck.
This suit was invented in 15th century Germany and is a survivor from a large pool of experimental suit signs created to replace the
In Swiss-suited playing cards, the equivalent suit is Roses, typically with the following suit symbol: .
Name
In
The origin of the term "heart" to describe the symbol, which only very marginally resembles a true heart, is not known.[2] In general, equivalents in other languages also mean "heart".
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The heart in German suited cards
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The heart in French suited cards
Characteristics
The heart typically has a form of cardioid, the lower part of which ends in a point. The symbol is drawn with its tip down, the two lobes of the cardioid pointing upwards. Generally, the hearts are coloured red.
French pattern
The following gallery shows the hearts of a
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German pattern
The gallery below shows a suit of Hearts from a German-suited playing cards of 32 cards. The pack is of the Saxonian pattern:
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7
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8
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9
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Four-colour packs
Four-color decks are sometimes used in tournaments or online.[3] In such packs Hearts may be:
Coding
The symbol ♥ is already in the CP437 and therefore also in the WGL4. In Unicode, a black heart ♥ and a white ♡ heart are defined:
Symbol | Unicode | Entity in HTML |
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♥ | U+2665 BLACK HEART SUIT | ♥ or ♥
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♡ | U+2661 WHITE HEART SUIT | ♡
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Example from Dingbats for one of the other forms of heart: | ||
❤ | U+2764 HEAVY BLACK HEART | ❤
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See also
References
- ^ Dummett, Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot. London: Duckworth. pp. 10–32.
- ^ K. McDonell (13 February 2007). "The Shape of My Heart - Where did the ubiquitous Valentine's symbol come from?". Slate.
- ISBN 978-1906-03209-8.