Patience (game)

[1] 'Patience' is the earliest recorded name for this type of card game in both British and American sources.

"[1] In practice, in North America the name 'solitaire' is often used totum pro parte to refer to single-player card games, although sometimes the term 'card solitaire' is used for clarity.

Authors writing internationally tend to include both "patience" and "solitaire" in the title, but sometimes the phrase "card games for one" is used instead.

The earliest English and American sources tended to use the definite article before the names of games e.g. "The Beleaguered Castle", "The Clock", "The Gathering of the Clans", "The House on the Hill", etc.

These tendencies have largely been dropped in modern sources, especially where books are aimed at a worldwide market.

However, in a few instances they are sometimes retained, for example, where the name is an adjective e.g. "The Blind Patience" or the definite article seems more evocative or meaningful e.g. "The Plot".

[a] Patience is probably of German or Scandinavian origin, the earliest records appearing in there in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

[3][2] The game became popular in France in the early 19th century, reaching Britain and America in the latter half.

[4] Patience was first mentioned in literature shortly after cartomantic layouts were developed circa 1765, suggesting a connection between the two.

[5][b] However, a lost book called Patience by 'Perseverance', a pseudonym for by William Henry Cremer, was published in London in 1860 and is listed in bibliographies.

[9] In the early 20th century, the name "solitaire" became established in North America; "patience" continues to be used elsewhere in the world.

It will be obvious that the endeavour to arrange, pair, or combine the cards of a whole pack is a difficult task, varying in degree according to the rules of the particular game.

[12] They are frequently sold as twin packs in a single box,[12] since many patiences and solitaires require two full decks of cards.

Games of perfect information (like chess), they require careful analysis to achieve success.

[16] Patience and solitaire games have enjoyed a renaissance as a result of being readily transferable to a software format and playable on computers or other electronic media.