Despite its difficult rules, complicated point score and strange foreign terms, it swept Europe in the last quarter of the 17th century, becoming Lomber and L'Hombre in Germany, Lumbur in Austria and Ombre (originally pronounced 'umber' ) in England, occupying a position of prestige similar to contract bridge today. It is one of the earliest card games known in Europe and by far the most classic game of its type, directly ancestral to Euchre, Boston and Solo Whist. Its history began in Spain around the end of the 16th century as a four-person game.
Ombre (from Spanish hombre 'man', pronounced 'omber') or l'Hombre is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game for three players and 'the most successful card game ever invented.' The player in the center is Rasmus Malling-Hansen, Danish inventor of the typewriter. L'Hombre (1887), a painting by Malthe Odin Engelstedt.
