The Fame of a Name

Who do we blame when the fame of a name becomes lame?

A long, long time ago the rhombus, with its four equal sides, was a polygon you could depend on. Named by the Greek mathematician Euclid himself, it had the best brand recognition in the two-dimensional shape business. Then one day, people invented playing cards. Having divided their deck into clubs, spades, and hearts, the cards' inventors knew that there was only one shape worthy enough to be their final suit: the rhombus. Unfortunately, the rhombus’s PR people couldn’t understand why anyone would spend their free time playing card games when they could be doing geometry problems instead, so the naming rights were never given. The final suit was eventually just called “diamonds”, and the rest is history. Missing his chance to stay hip and relevant, the word "rhombus" quickly faded from the public sphere, and now it only makes brief cameos in high-school math classes. At parties, he is relegated to the quirky quadrilateral table, trapped with the trapezoids as they drone on and on about how parallel sides are vastly overrated. So now you know why the rhombi cry. 

Some people call this card the two of diamonds, although no realistic diamonds are pictured above. But to polygonal purists, it will always be the two of rhombuseses.
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