fan-tan

See also: fantan

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Noun

fan-tan (uncountable)

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