What does bezique mean?
Bezique is a classic European card game for two players, traditionally played with two 64-card packs from which the low cards have been removed. Players draw, discard, and declare scoring combinations — marriages, sequences, and pairs — with the most valuable combination, a pair of sevens of trumps alongside the queen and jack of trumps, bearing the name 'bezique' itself. The game flourished in nineteenth-century France and Britain, becoming a fashionable pastime in drawing rooms and clubs, and it was reportedly enjoyed by figures such as Winston Churchill. It later gave rise to the American game pinochle, which remains more widely played today. Although bezique has largely faded from popular play, it survives as a term of historical and cultural interest, evoking the leisurely card culture of the Victorian era and retaining a place in reference works on traditional games.
A card game for two players using two modified packs, scored by declaring combinations such as marriages, sequences, and pairs.
"After supper they would settle down to a quiet game of bezique by lamplight."
In the game of bezique, the combination of the queen of spades and jack of diamonds held in one hand.
"He laid down his bezique and claimed the score."
Rarely pluralised; the plural applies mainly to instances of the scoring combination rather than to the game itself.
"She collected three beziques over the course of a single deal."
Bezique was reportedly a favourite of Winston Churchill — a Victorian two-pack card game whose name even experts still can't fully explain.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bezique
The word 'bezique' entered English in the mid-nineteenth century from French, where it denoted the same card game. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; it may be related to an earlier French term used in other gambling contexts, but no definitive derivation has been established. The game itself spread through Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before reaching Britain, where it became highly fashionable in the Victorian period. Its American adaptation, pinochle, retains many structural features of bezique.
How bezique is actually used
Register: formal/literary. Connotation: nostalgic, associated with Victorian parlour games and older generations. The term is now relatively rare in everyday use, largely superseded by its American descendant pinochle.
Easily confused with bezique
Pinochle is a related but distinct American trick-taking card game; bezique is the older European game from which pinochle developed.