A three-card combination in the card game of primero and related gambling games; a hand of three cards of the same rank.
From French 'brelan,' possibly related to 'brelot' or of uncertain origin. The term entered English through gaming culture when card games like primero were popular in Renaissance Europe.
Medieval gambling slang invented tons of card game terms that vanished when games changed—'brelan' survives mainly in historical texts, like fossilized language from gaming's wild past!
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