Note 303 — Chapter IV · OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CARDS AND THE MARKS OF THE SUITS. (continued 2)

According to Père Daniel, the Ace or As is the Latin As,—a piece of money, coin, riches; while Bullet derives it from the Celtic, and says that it means origin, source, beginning, the first. A French writer of the sixteenth century, supposed to be Charles Stephens, in a work entitled 'Paradoxes,' printed at Paris in 1553, says that the Ace, or "Az ought to be called Nars, a word which, in German, signifies a fool." The German word which he alludes to is Narr, which is just as likely to have been the origin of Deuce as of Ace. It has also been supposed that the term Ace has been derived from the Greek word ὁνος, which, according to Julius Pollux, signified One in the Ionic dialect; but as the word ὁνος also signified an Ass, it has been conjectured that the Ace of cards and dice was so called, not as a designation of unity, but as signifying an Ass or a Fool. Those who entertained the latter opinion are said by Hyde to be Asses themselves: "Qui unitatem asinum dicunt errant, et ipsi sunt asini." (De Ludis Orient. lib. ii.)—Leber, Etudes Historiques, pp. 39, 86.