Lomber, spaddilía, basti, ponti ...

On a few Spanish card-playing words

Abstract

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the cardplay l’hombre was very popular in Iceland. This play probably came to Iceland from Denmark around the middle of the 19th century. This paper deals with some words which belong to this game and are of Spanish origin as well as the game itself. These Spanish loanwords have travelled from the south to the north through French and Danish until entering Icelandic. Many of the words are still used when the game is played; words like, for example, basti, spaddilía, manilía, matador, koðradilla, ponti, as well as the name of the cardplay, lomber.