fan-tan
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See also: fantan
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Cantonese 番攤／番摊 (faan1 taan1, literally “repeated divisions”).
Noun
fan-tan (uncountable)
- A Chinese gambling game in which coins or other small objects are placed upon a table, usually under a cup, and the players bet as to what remainder will be left when the sum of the counters is divided by four.
- 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 85:
- He came in an said Pack, we were booked for Macau. When we got there, I played fantan in the Lisboa and he crossed over into Zhongshan.
- A card game in which the cards are played in sequences upon the table, and the winner is the first player to have no cards left.
Translations
a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four
Macanese
Etymology
Borrowed from Cantonese 番攤／番摊 (faan1 taan1, literally “repeated divisions”); see English entry.
Noun
fan-tan
- fan-tan (Chinese card game)
Derived terms
- fantanéro (“someone addicted to fan-tan”)