Azar is another of the many words in Spanish that come from Arabic. It is a borrowing of Arabic az-zahr, "die for gaming". Az-zahr itself may be short for ku'b az-zahr, literally "cube (ku'b) of the flowers (az-zahr)". In the ancient and medieval world, dice were marked with other designs and symbols besides the dots we are familiar with today, and it is thought that a flower was sometimes painted on the winning (or the losing, according to the rules of the game) side of the die.