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be·zique

(bə-zēk)

1. A trick-taking card game for two players that is played with a special deck of 64 cards consisting of the 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A cards from two different decks.

2. The combination of the queen of spades and the jack of diamonds in this game, worth 40 points.

[Alteration of French bésigue, from or akin to Italian bazzica, a kind of card game, perhaps from bazza, trump card (of unknown origin), or from bazzicare, to frequent, haunt (of unknown origin).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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