You will know the words ace and deuce, and perhaps you've seen trey, which is sometimes forced into crosswords as a change from tray or Troy, but the subsequent numbers in this series are more or less obsolete now, except when used by some very keen game-players.
Ace is more commonly associated with card games these days, but it was first used in connection with dice, which are probably the earliest gaming accessories (they date back around 5000 years and most likely were first used in India).
The full set of numbers for the six sides of a die are ace, deuce, trey, cater, cinque, sice. They are from Old French (cf un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six of modern French). Ace is originally from the Latin for 'unit'.
Deuce is an anglicised spelling of the Old French spelling variant deus. The ending -ce often means that the word was once spelled with an s. Defence, for instance, was originally spelled defens (because it comes from the Latin past participle defensum), and, of course, it still is spelled defense in US English. Truce was once a plural word spelled trewes (it was a collective plural, referring to the sum total of pledges made by both sides). Peace, which also comes from Old French, was once spelled pais.
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