Lost Word Of The Day (86)

With the popularity of card games over the centuries and with a pack containing fifty-two different cards, it is unsurprising that individual cards bear unusual names. Are you like Mr Squander in William Carleton’s Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, published in 1830, who asked “what do you mean by the Earl of Cork?

His respondent, who by the tenor of his response was from the lower orders and might even have been up before the beak, enlightened him. “The ace of diamonds, your honour. It’s the worst ace and the poorest card in the pack and is called the Earl of Cork because he’s the poorest nobleman in Ireland”.

The term probably was not peculiar to Ireland although the migration from the island in the mid-19th century is likely to have contributed to its spread. The Durham County Advertiser, in its edition of November 14, 1851, featured an article called Popular names for certain Playing Cards and the Earl of Cork as the Ace of Diamonds duly appeared.