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The extra card, and an American invention rather than a medieval one.
Also known as: Jester card, Wild card, Extra card in a deck
A card outside the four suits, added in the United States around 1860 as the top trump for euchre. Its jester imagery is a later illustration of the name, not the reason it exists.
A card belonging to no suit, supplied one or two to a deck, used as a wild card or a top trump in the games that call for one and discarded in those that do not.
Added in the United States around 1860 as the highest trump in euchre, where the top trump was called the best bower. The name is generally taken to be a corruption of juker, from the game's own name.
United States · from c. 1860
Not descended from the Fool of the tarot pack, despite a persistent claim to the contrary. The two are separate cards from separate traditions three centuries apart, and the resemblance is that both were later drawn as jesters.
The tarot Fool is fifteenth-century Italian; the joker is nineteenth-century American.
A card carrying no suit mark, usually showing a capped figure with bells, and the word printed across the face.