triumphe

Latin triumphus described the ceremonial procession granted to a Roman general who had achieved a significant victory: he rode through Rome on a chariot, preceded by his captives and spoils, acclaimed by the crowd. The ritual was rigorously defined — specific victory thresholds, a specific route, specific chants. The general wore a crown of laurel and had his face painted red to imitate Jupiter. Old French triumphe was the paraded victory.

Trump (or triumph) entered English card-game vocabulary in the 16th century. In the game of triumph and its descendants, a trump card was a card of a suit that outranked all others — it could beat any card of a different suit regardless of its value. The lowest trump beat the highest non-trump. 'Trump' as a verb meant to outrank or defeat decisively — to play the winning card.

The word acquired English idiom: 'trumped up' meant fabricated — as if creating a false claim that appeared to outrank genuine ones. 'Trump card' became the idiom for a decisive secret advantage. 'To play one's trump card' meant to reveal a final, decisive resource held in reserve. These idioms long predated 20th-century American usage of the name.

The family name Trump derives from a different route: German Trumpf (trumpet) or possibly the same card game term applied to an ancestor. Donald Trump's political career has given the name new layers of meaning in American English that sit awkwardly alongside the card game etymology.