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basset

Games
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Basset is a banking card game of pure chance popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, involving bets on cards.

Detailed Definition
Basset features in poetry as a symbol of high-stakes gambling and the allure of the bank. In period verse it represents the seductive risk of fortune. Poets use its continuous play and the house's advantage to explore themes of addiction, the erosion of wealth, and the unequal contest between the individual and the unyielding power of chance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Basset’s continuous banking and rapid turns appear in poems of elegant ruin; Eighteenth-century verse places the basset table at the center of aristocratic risk; “She lost the coach and four at basset before dawn” illustrates the speed of fortune’s change; Educational examples present the game as pure chance in formal dress; Poets use its endless deal to show how the night can empty a house.
Additional Notes
Basset’s continuous banking and rapid turns made it a fashionable emblem of elegant ruin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Poets who choose the game often wish to stage the speed with which fortune can reverse under the appearance of polite play. In pedagogical contexts basset illustrates the period taste for games that combine extreme chance with extreme formality. Related banking games include faro and lansquenet. The term carries a distinctly aristocratic and slightly dangerous fragrance.
Also Known As
Basset Game High-Stakes Basset Basset Stakes
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