程阳：赌场的英文单词 CASINO 来源自哪？

牛津词典解释  其它词典解释  维基百科解释

国际权威的《牛津词典》说，英文单词 CASINO来自18世纪中叶的意大利语，指的是“小房舍”，而意大利语来自同义的拉丁文。海外华人自嘲中国人好赌，调侃地说早期移民美国的中国（广东、福建）人，每天晚饭后聚众开赌时高喊“开始喽”成就了英文单词 CASINO 。调侃归调侃，学者拿这个正儿八经说事儿，就贻笑大方了！

ca·si·no/kəˈsinoʊ/ Show Spelled [kuh-see-noh]

noun, plural ca·si·nos for 1.

1. a building or large room used for meetings, entertainment, dancing, etc., especially such a place equipped with gambling devices, gambling tables, etc.

2. (in Italy) a small country house or lodge.

3. Also, cassino.  Cards.  a game in which cards that are face up on the table are taken with eligible cards in the hand.

Origin:

1780–90;  < Italian,  equivalent to cas ( a ) house + -ino  diminutive suffix

The term "Casino" is of Italian origin, the root word being "Casa" (house) and originally meant a small country villa, summerhouse or pavilion. The word changed to refer to a building built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. Such buildings were used to host civic town functions – including dancing, music listening, and gambling.

There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. In modern day Italian, this term designates a bordello (also called "casa chiusa", literally "closed house"), while the gambling house is spelled casinò with an accent.[2]

During the 19th century, the term "casino" came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities, including gambling, and sports took place. An example of this type of building is the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island.

Not all casinos were used for gaming. The Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, known for the use made of its hall for mass public meetings during the 1848 Revolution which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. Until 1937 it was a well-known Danish theatre.[3] The Hanko Casino located in Hanko, Finland - one of that town's most conspicuous landmarks - was never used for gambling. Rather, it was a banquet hall for the Russian nobility which frequented this spa resort in the late 19th century, and is presently used as a restaurant. The Catalina Casino,[4] a famous landmark overlooking Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island, California, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were already outlawed in California by the time it was built.

In military usage in Spanish and German, a casino or kasino is an officers' mess; curiously, in Italian - the source-language of the word - a "casino" is either a brothel, a mess, or a noisy environment, while a gaming house is called a "casinò". A confusing linguistic false friend for translators.

The precise origin of gambling is unknown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in 2300 BC, but it is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance.[5]

The first known European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was the Ridotto, established in Venice, Italy in 1638 to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season. It was closed in 1770 as the city government perceived it to impoverish the local gentry.

In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities; New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, and often gamble with. During the early 20th century in America, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada, along with Las Vegas and Reno. America's first legalized casinos were set up in those places. In 1978 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now America's second largest gambling city.