What does cassino mean?
Cassino is a traditional card game for two to four players, played with a standard 52-card deck, in which the aim is to capture cards lying face up on the table. Players may take a table card with a card of the same rank, capture several cards whose values add up to their own, or build combinations for later capture. Points are awarded for most cards taken, most spades, the ten of diamonds, and sweeps — clearing the entire table in one move. Once a staple of Victorian and early twentieth-century domestic card playing, cassino has faded from mainstream popularity but survives in classic card-game collections and family tradition. The word is spelled with a double 's' largely to distinguish the game from the unrelated gambling venue called a casino, although both terms trace back to the same Italian source meaning a small house.
A card game for two to four players in which face-up table cards are captured by matching rank or by numerical combination, with points scored for captures, spades, and sweeps.
"We whiled away the evening playing cassino until the deck grew too worn to shuffle."
Often capitalized informally in older rule books; the term is dated but still recognized among enthusiasts of traditional card games.
An alternative, chiefly historical spelling of casino, denoting a building or room used for social gatherings, music, dancing, or light gaming.
"The seaside cassino drew promenaders every summer evening."
This sense is largely obsolete in modern English and survives mainly in older texts.
Regular plural; rare in practice since the word usually denotes the game itself rather than countable instances, but it can be used when discussing multiple games or venues.
"Different regions developed their own variants, so several distinct cassinos were played under the same name."
Long before slot machines made 'casino' famous, cassino was the name of a beloved Victorian parlour card game where capturing the whole table in one move was called a 'sweep'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cassino
Cassino entered English in the late eighteenth century, borrowed from Italian casina, the diminutive of casa ('house'), meaning a small house or cottage. The same Italian word gave English 'casino', which originally denoted a small country villa or social club before narrowing to its modern sense of a gambling establishment. The card game took the doubled-s spelling as it became established in English, helping to set it apart from the building sense. Related borrowings from the same Romance root include 'chalet', via Alpine French and Swiss usage of a similar diminutive.
How cassino is actually used
The card-game sense is now somewhat old-fashioned and chiefly found in Britain and North America among traditional card-game circles; it appears in classic card-game references rather than everyday speech. The spelling with double 's' is conventional for the card game precisely to distinguish it from the gambling-house sense of 'casino', though older sources sometimes use 'casino' for both.
Easily confused with cassino
Casino is chiefly a gambling establishment (or a dance style), while cassino is a traditional card game — though both derive from the same Italian word for a small house.