Dictionary

fan-tan en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from Cantonese 番攤 /番摊 (faan¹ taan¹, literally “repeated divisions”).

Meanings

1. (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.
   • 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. 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 85:
2. (uncountable) 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.

Forms

Translations (9)

th กำถั่ว (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · yue 番攤 /番摊 (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · km ថួ (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · tl capona (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · th เล่นถั่ว (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · th ถั่ว (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · nan-hbl 攤 /摊 (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · km ធួ (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four) · lo ຖົ່ວ (a specific gambling game where objects are counted in sets of four)