Origin and history of whist

card game for four, 1660s, alteration of whisk, name of a kind of card game, alluded to as early as 1520s, perhaps so called from the notion of "whisking" up cards after each trick, and thus from whisk (v.).

It was then perhaps altered by influence of whist, also whish, the exclamation to suggest silence to one nearby (which is attested by late 14c.), but in most sources this is not considered the direct source of the card-game name, nor is "silence" considered the etymological sense of it. "The rule of silence, so far as it exists, is appar[ently] founded, however, in part on the false etymology." [Century Dictionary]