I had always assumed, without thinking too much about it, that the tarot trump The Magus (aka The Magician or The Juggler) derived from the playing card The Joker. The International Playing-Card Society has an excellent short history of cards that gave the true derivation:
Americans added to the Euchre deck a card even higher than the designated Bowers. It was called the Imperial Bower or the Best Bower. This was the genesis of the Joker. According to the latest theory, the Best Bower alternatively was called "the Euchre card". This could have been mispronounced as "Juker card," which then gave rise to "Joker card".
and later
...it is certain that the Joker card itself was not a European invention. It is one of America's most picturesque contributions to the history of playing cards.
So there you have it - the Joker was actually the later development.
Americans added to the Euchre deck a card even higher than the designated Bowers. It was called the Imperial Bower or the Best Bower. This was the genesis of the Joker. According to the latest theory, the Best Bower alternatively was called "the Euchre card". This could have been mispronounced as "Juker card," which then gave rise to "Joker card".
and later
...it is certain that the Joker card itself was not a European invention. It is one of America's most picturesque contributions to the history of playing cards.
So there you have it - the Joker was actually the later development.
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