jass

Borrowed from Alemannic German Jass.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /jas/

jass (uncountable)

1. (card games) A trick-taking card game popular in Switzerland and neighboring areas of Germany and Austria.
   • 1986, Kenneth Hsu, The Great Dying:

     A Swiss jass master and I teamed up against my wife and an American, who were both rank beginners.

   • 2010, Diccon Bewes, Swiss Watching, p. 244:

     Jass is similar to bridge, though with completely different cards, and is a national obsession, for young and old alike.

   • 2014, Donal McLaughlin, translating Arno Camenisch, Behind the Station:

     When Nonna plays cards, she moves her teeth from side to side. It makes a bit of a racket. It distracts the other jass players – that's why Nonna's so good at jass.

• jass on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• An explanation of the card game's rules

Obsolete and variant forms.

jass (uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of jazz
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 417:

     “Yet I've noticed the same thing when your band plays—the most amazing social coherence, as if you all shared the same brain.”

     “Sure,” agreed “Dope,” “but you can't call that organization.”

     “What do you call it?”

     “Jass.”