Baccarat

The game shares its name with a Lorraine glassmaking town, and nobody can prove the connection.

English borrowed the word from French baccarat or baccara in the nineteenth century. Dictionaries note the town of Baccarat in Meurthe-et-Moselle, famous since 1764 for its crystal works, but no record ties the game to the place. The town's own name is first recorded in 1291 and is itself unexplained.