The name given to cards by the earliest French and German writers who mention them, is, respectively, _Cartes_ and _Karten_--in Latin, _Chartæ_; but as _Charta_ signifies _paper_, and as cards are made of paper, it has generally been supposed that they received their name from that circumstance. But if a part of their original name signified the number _four_, whether derived from an eastern root, or from the Latin _quarta_, it can scarcely be doubted that they acquired the name of _chartæ_, not in consequence of their being made of paper, but because the Latin word which signified paper had nearly the same sound as another word which signified four,--in the same manner as _Pherz_, the General, in chess, found a representative in _Fierge_, and subsequently became confounded with _Vierge_: the ideal change of _Vierge_ into _Dame_, the wife of the king, followed of course, like "wooed,--an' married an' a'." It is deserving of remark, that in several old French works, written within fifty years of the time when we have positive evidence of the game of cards being known in France, the word is sometimes spelled _quartz_ or _quartes_, as if, in the mind of the writer, it was rather associated with the idea of _four_ than with that of _paper_. The possible derivation of _cards_ from _quarta_, was suggested by Mr. Gough, in his Observations on the Invention of Cards, in the eighth volume of the 'Archæologia,' though he was of opinion that they obtained their name from the paper of which they were made. "Perhaps," says he, "it may be too bold a conjecture that the '_quartes_, ludus _quartarum_ sive cartarum,' by which Junius [in his Etymologicon] explains _cards_, may be derived from _quarta_, which, Du Cange says, is used simply for the fourth part of any thing, and so may be referred to the _quatuor reges_; but as Du Cange expressly says, that _quarta_ and _carta_ are synonymous, I lay no stress on this, but leave it to the critics."