The Meaning Behind French Playing Card Suits

The four French suits have become iconic, instantly recognizable symbols all across the world. In many ways, they have transcended their original purpose to become symbols of chance, fortune, and luxury. Given how ubiquitous they have become in modern art, culture, and games, it’s time more people should know exactly what those fancy French symbols mean.

The French Suits in Culture

The French suits are no strangers to the arts – Lewis Carroll drew on them for his novels way back in the 1800s. In the 1960s, French influence over Vietnam led to the Ace of Spades being widely used by US soldiers, as the ‘death card’. From there, it entered tattoo culture as a symbol of mystery and death, while the hearts and diamonds remained light-hearted symbols of affection or opulence.

Of course, their original use in poker and other card games still stand. The internet has made those games more popular than ever. Through online platforms, it has become much easier for people to play poker and stay up to date with happenings through sites like Pokernews, which covers ongoing tournaments in the space. A whole media space has developed that televises and streams card games and makes celebrities out of the players who are good at it. Every step of the way, the French-suited card symbols are widely used in branding and advertising.

What the French Suits Mean

Just as they have been reflected in art and culture, the playing card suits are themselves a reflection of the times they came from. Card suits are very old, dating back to medieval times, but the French versions developed throughout the 1700s. As for face card designs, they first originated through tarot cards, best explained here by New York’s own Met Museum.

In older suits, you’ll see different symbols like coins, swords, (literal) clubs, cups, shields, roses, acorns, and bells. You could broadly tell where a card came from by the suits it used – acorns and bells were favorites in Germany and Switzerland, while Italy and other Mediterranean nations used swords and trade-related items.

The French suits ultimately evolved from these suits, as playing cards spread from east to west over hundreds of years throughout the Middle Ages. They hit France last, and the French reinterpreted symbols to better fit their society and tastes.

Roses naturally became hearts over time – the French made no changes there. They did change the swords into piques(pikes) – a different weapon associated with war – but the English reinterpreted them as spades instead. Similarly, the French call diamonds carreaux (tiles) instead, and they developed from those bells, coins, and other affluent, merchant-related symbols. Lastly, the clubs symbol started as a literal club, transitioned into staves, then acorns, and then trèfles (clovers) which is the French name for them. Despite their new, plant-like appearance, the English preferred to say clubs instead.

If you know your history, then you can guess how the French designs became the way to decorate playing cards. The English adopted the French style, then exported it across the world, most notably to the burgeoning United States of America – a story covered here by Vanishing Inc. While the French designs stuck, the English names for them won out – the pikes, tiles, and clovers became the spades, diamonds, and clubs instead. Then, alongside the heart, they became the iconic, minimalist symbols that you see echoed throughout culture.