http://www.letarot.it/news.aspx?id=4
Andrea VITALi publishes a new inquiry about the etymology of Tarot : a suggestive hypothesis about another possible origin of the word Tarot. It could result from an expression of chess regarding the Tower.
“Arroccare” in Italian means to build a tower or castle on top of a hill for
defensive purposes. There and still was l’arrocco (castling move).
Maybe the card players, when they put on the table strong taken cards, said to the opponent "”t’arrocco" or “ti arrocco” to mean "I forcing to defendyourself”.
In the medieval text on chess we find for Tower “Roccus, Rochi, Rocchi”.
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=275&lng=ITA
Translation in English :
Rochi and Tarochi
A suggestive hypotheses regarding the etymology of the “Tarot” word
A further hypothesis concerning the etymology of Tarot word is that the term may derive from an expression related to the towers, whether they are intended on their general sense of stronghold or in reference to the piece of chess. In fact, between chess and tarot there are similarities not only due to the presence of some common figures (King, Queen, Cavalier, Page, Tower): while both were considered games of intelligence character, was nevertheless highlighted their educational content. While we know that the order of tarot cards in some way reflected the Mystic Stair, the chess well represented the different classes of society (1), as described by the Dominican Jacobus de Cessolis (1250-1322) in the work Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium super ludo scacchorum (c. 1300), for who in the "nice game of chess is contained instruction on society and on the battle of the human race" (2). In chess, the opponent is called "the opposite" and sometimes even "the enemy" (3). Even the game of tarot, as chess, is a battle, made with cards, where you need to win over opponents.
We estimate that towers (or rocks=“rocche” in Italian language) were very common in the Middle Ages, buildings that men of that time had constantly under the eyes. Considered symbols of elevation and power, their conquest was believed, by the collective imagination, as a great demonstrations of strength. For this reason, a tower stroked by a fire was inserted in tarot cards to represent the Sphaera Ignis, circle of fire that rose above the earth and through which the divinity expressed his great power of destruction.
(4), both in chess, as an expression of strength to conquer. Cessolis, who called the Tower with the term Roccus and plural Rochi, identifies this element of chess with the Vicars or the Legates of the King (vicarii seu legati regis) (5). A strategic defensive move involving King and Tower, is the Arrocco (castling) (6), whose rules were not born with the invention of the game, but came to encode itself over time, as Fernando Beretta, historian of the game chess, writes in his short treatise (7).
All social classes were playing chess, but in our examination interested the players of the lower classes, those who played in the taverns. Indeed, we must considered that the game of chess was companion, along with the dice, of the game of tarot and it is not unlikely that at some period, end of sec. XV, card players, in naming the game, uses an expression to attack opponents or borrowing by a phrase used in regard to the Rochi referring chess or, more generally, to the assault with taken cards tended to overwhelm the rival, like with that move the opponent should “arroccarsi” (to entrench himself), that is put on the defensive. Many rocks were placed on top of mountains (in Italian language = torre arroccata) not only for reasons of sight, but to be protected from the easy conquests. At the moment, waiting for the desired results from our research (8), we can only to venture some of these expressions, such as “t'arocco, t'arocho, ti arocco, ti arocho, ti rocco, ti rocho” (9) to mean "forcing you to entrench yourself " or "I conquered you, I attacked you". (Note 9 - In these expressions the word ti, unstressed form of the personal pronoun tu =you, acquires accusative form).
