1. 1526. Francesco Berni “Capitolo del Giocco della Primiera”. “Let him look to it, who is pleased with the game of Tarocco, that the only signification of this word Tarocco, is stupid, foolish, simple, fit only to be used by bakers, cobblers, and the vulgar; to play at most for the fourth part of a Carlino, at Tarocchi, or at Trionfi, or any Sminchiate [sic] whatever: which in every way signifies only foolery and idleness, feasting the eye with the sun, and the moon, and the twelve (signs) as children do.” (from Kaplan, “Encyclopedia of Tarot” vol. I, (U.S. Games Systems, 1978) p. 28). [Berni offers no etymology, but he does say it means something, a fact which might be useful to researchers.]
2. 1543. Andrea Alciato “Parergon Juris libri VII posteriores”, p. 72. Alciato wonders whether that card game “commonly called Tarocchi might have a Greek etymology; namely, it can be called ‘hetairochoi’[etairwcoi], ‘the companions’: those who, for the sustenance, assemble for the game”.
3. 1570 (circa). An anonymous writer in "Discorso perchè fosse trovato il giuoco" suggests another Greek etymology - "Tarocco in lingua Greca altro non vuol dire che salso et precioso condimento..." (alluding perhaps to the Greek tarichos - "seasonings") (thanks to Thierry Depaulis for pointing out the Discorso's etymology).
4. 1573. “Tara” (Italian) or “tare” (French), from which is dervived “tarière”, a boring drill. The root of this word is Arabic, *tara*, “a loss of value which happens to merchandise; deduction, to deduct”, which came into Italian and French in the 13th century.
[This has been the French lexicographical explanation for the word “Tarault” (although "tarault" or "taraut" as a drill, and not a pack of cards) since at least Nicot’s “Dictionaire François-Latin”, 1573 –
“Tarault – see ‘Tarière’. ‘Tarière’, or Tarault, bore or drill. ‘Tare’, a waste or diminution of something.”
The derivation from the Arabic “tara” still appears in “Tresor de la langue Française” (Gallimard, 1992, vol. 15 p. 1393) – “der[ived] from [Arabic] ‘tara’, because in this game a player must, in certain cases, put a card to the side.”]
[This explanation seems implausible to me, because “putting a card to side” is hardly a salient feature of Tarot (where in almost all games, all the cards in the deck, dealt or undealt, played or unplayed, count in the total), and an action of “discarding” is hardly a novel feature of Tarot. Thus I cannot think why the game would be *named* after this action.]
5. 1782. Antoine Court de Gebelin. In “Le Monde Primitif” he asserted that the word Tarot comes from Egyptian TAR and RO. [This has since been discredited, since neither word exists with those meanings in Egyptian (or Coptic or Rom that I can find), and there is no reason to think tarot cards came from ancient Egypt.]
6. 1856. Alphonse L. Constant, “Dogme et rituel de la haute magie”, vol. II, pp. 340-341. Constant suggests that the word Tarot is an anagram of ROTA, Latin for “wheel”, and found in a diagram to Guillaume Postel’s “Clavis Absconditorum” from 1582. Discredited. [The strong argument is that the early word finished with a hard “k” sound, present in Italian and some French forms of the word. The weak argument is that Postel never mentions Taro(t) cards.]
7. Taroccàre (Italian). Two meanings. The earliest is given in etymological dictionaries as appearing in 1589, and possibly derived from the Latin “altercare” – to dispute (cf. English “altercation”). The second appears in 1686, meaning to “play tarocchi”, and to trick or deceive. [The lateness of the second witness makes it likely that the verb “taroccàre” has been derived from the game “tarocco”, not vice-versa. The earlier witness is still later than the earliest appearance of “tarochi” (as it was first spelled), and as a weak argument I would say it doesn’t seem like a good name for a specific game, since tarot is no more a dispute than any other card game.]
8. Taro river. The battle fought just outside of Fornovo (“on-the-Taro”) on 6 July 1495, between Charles VIII of France and Italian armies. I believe it was first suggested by Sylvia Mann. [I would say that this explanation should be discredited for the same reason as any other explanation that ignores the final “k” sound.]
9. Tarochus/Tarocus. The late 15th century macaronic Italian poet Bassano Mantovano uses the word “tarochus” to mean “idiot” or “imbecile” in one of his poems (c. 1495)
"Erat mecum mea socrus unde putana
Quod foret una sibi pensebat ille tarochus
Et cito ni solvam mihi menazare comenzat"
Maccheronea del Bassano, ll. 34-36 (various editions)
(Cordié's 1977 edition spells the word "tarocus"; for the meaning "imbecille", see there the Glossario sub "Tarocus" of Carlo Cordié, ed. "Opere di Teofilo Folengo" vol. I (Milano, Ricciano Ricciardi) p. 1029).
[A Latin or vernacular "tarocus" is otherwise unattested to my knowledge, except for a river in Wales (the Welsh “Trwch” becoming the Latin “Tarocus” and modern “Troggus”). [See
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/Topics/Engineering/roads/Britain/_Texts/CODROM/10*.html
Comparing Folengo's use with the understanding of his contemporary Berni (entry 1 above) seems to reveal that both knew the same sense of such a word.]
10. Town of “Taraux” near Avignon. One of the cardmakers in Avignon around 1500 married a woman only 1 km from the modern town of Tharaux (spelled “Taraux” in the 16th century). The earliest French (or Provençal) spelling of the game was “taraux”, and the earliest French reference comes from Avignon in 1505. (see http://www.chez.com/giorgiomat/Germer_Durand/Tharaux.htm )
Personnally, I favor explanations 1 and 9. My hypothesis would be that the original sense of cards called “tarocs” or “tarocchi” is then “crazy cards” or “nutty cards” – i.e. as compared to the “normal” kind of cards that everybody knew and used. Possibly also, because tarocchi used a Matto, Fou or Fool, which are synonyms (according to Berni and Folengo) of “tarocus.”
Ross Caldwell