Bête (from the
French ''bête'' [] = "beast", "dumb animal" or "brute"
), Labet or the Germanised Bete and (Low German) Beet, is a term used in certain card games for a penalty payment e.g. for failing to take the minimum number of tricks, or for a stake or money which a player has lost.
In
trick-taking game
A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a '' hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of suc ...
, such as
Mistigri and
Kauflabet, the player who has failed to win a single trick is "bête" or "the Bête".
Likewise in
Mauscheln
Mauscheln, also Maus or Vierblatt, is a gambling card game that resembles Tippen, which is commonly played in Germany and the countries of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Background Origin of the name
The name Mauscheln means something lik ...
, if the declarer, or ''Mauschler'', fails to win a trick, he is called the ''Mauschlerbete''.
The word is used with verbs in phrases that have further meanings:
* Bête sein ("to be
beast") – to have lost a game
* Bête machen ("to make
beast") - to bet or bid
* Bête ziehen – ("to draw
beast") - to win a card game
* Pott Beet - Low German for having lost badly e.g. without winning a single trick.
The name is derived from the historical French card game of
Bête where it referred to the stake and the penalty for losing. ''Labet'' is another name for the card game of
Tippen
Tippen, also known as Dreiblatt, Dreikart, Drei Karten, Dreekort, Kleinpréférence or Labet, is an historical German 3-card, plain-trick game which was popular as a gambling game for three or more players. The Danish version of the game was known ...
and ''Bête'' also came to be a synonym for the card game of
Mouche.
Footnotes
References
[�]
Bete
�� In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
or was a major encyclopedia in the German language that existed in various editions, and by several titles, from 1839 to 1984, when it merged with the .
Joseph Meyer (1796–1856), who had founded the publishing house in 1826, intended to i ...
, Band 2. Leipzig 1905, S. 765.
[�]
Mistigri
�� In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
or was a major encyclopedia in the German language that existed in various editions, and by several titles, from 1839 to 1984, when it merged with the .
Joseph Meyer (1796–1856), who had founded the publishing house in 1826, intended to i ...
, Band 13. Leipzig 1908, S. 907.
See also
*
List of German words of French origin
This is a list of German language, German words and expressions of French language, French origin. Some of them were borrowed in Middle Ages, medieval times, some were introduced by Huguenot immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries and others have ...
Card game terminology
French words and phrases
{{card-game-stub