Lexicon (card game)

Last updated

Lexicon
Lexicor027 (13316043513).jpg
Master card from 1933 edition
Other namesLex, Lexicon with Tiles, Lexikon, Crossword Lexicon, Script
Designers David Whitelaw
Publishers Waddingtons
Publication1932;92 years ago (1932)
Genres Word game
Players2–4; more with an additional deck
Setup time2 minutes
Age range8+ [1] :28
SkillsVocabulary, spelling
Media type Playing cards or tiles

Lexicon is a word game using a dedicated deck of cards for 2 to 4 players [2] published as a shedding card game.

Contents

The original game was published by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom, and it was later distributed and licensed internationally, and has been published with various names and in different formats. The intellectual property for the game is currently owned by Winning Moves.

Rules for numerous games using the deck of cards for Lexicon have been created, including for solitaire games and for tournaments.

Publication history

Lexicon was created by David Whitelaw in 1932 [3] and originally published by Waddingtons. After a poor launch for an initial small edition as a market test, Waddingtons upgraded the packaging and increased the price, and by late 1932 were selling thousands of units per day in stationery shops. [4] A section in the rulebook was titled "How to arrange a Lexicon drive" for the organisation and execution of a party or tournament based on Lexicon. [2]

By 1934, the game was being sold internationally. In March 1934, proceeds from a game in Australia were donated towards children's health care. [5] :20 In the United States, it was distributed by Parker Brothers as Crossword Lexicon. [6] :1 In 1938, George Parker stated that of all games sold by the company, the demand for Lexicon was only exceeded by that of regular playing cards. [6] :1 By the early 1970s, a version of the game had been released using tiles instead of cards, with minor rule variations. [7] :14–15

Early rulebooks distributed with the game contained instructions for 23 games that could be played by 2 to 4 players with the deck cards. [2] [8] :25 Certain copies came with a 1936 competition slip wherein £1,000 was offered in cash prizes. Several subsequent versions have been released.

From 23-25 September 1983, Waddingtons organised the Lexicon Golden Jubilee Weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the game. [9] :19 It was hosted at the Victoria Hotel in Nottingham with various Lexicon-themed games, including "team Lexicon, Lexicon criss-cross, Lexicon clock patience, and individual games", as well as a dinner with alphabet soup, a lecture by the author of A History of Waddingtons, and a prize presentation event. [9] :19

Waddingtons was purchased by Hasbro in 1994, which later sold Lexicon to Winning Moves. [4]

Gameplay

A Lexicon "A" card, worth 10 points Lexicor001 (13316182024).jpg
A Lexicon "A" card, worth 10 points

Each player is dealt ten cards from a pool of 52, [3] each depicting a letter and a point value. [8] :25 Two packs of cards are used for more than 5 players. [3] The letter distribution was originally four each of the vowels 'A', 'E', and 'I', three each of the vowels 'O' and 'U' and the consonants 'H', 'L', 'R', 'S', 'T', and 'W', and one each of the other letters and the Master card. [10] :134 The point values are 10 for 'A', 'E', and 'I'; 8 points for 'C', 'H', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', and 'W'; 6 points for 'D', 'J', and 'V'; 4 points for 'G', 'Q', and 'Y'; and 2 points for 'B', 'F', 'X', and 'Z'. [10] :134 The Master card is a wild card that may represent any letter, [2] and has a point value of 15. [10] :134

On their turn, a player may lay down a complete word with their letters, extend a word already played, or discard one of their cards and draw one from the top of the draw or discard piles. [8] :25 The player may also choose to exchange one or more cards with those forming a word in play, so long as the exchange results in a complete word. [3]

The object is for a player to eliminate all cards from their hand. [11] :8 When a player has no cards left in their hand, the round ends and the other players each tally the point value of the cards they hold. [8] :25 A player may challenge a word as being non-existent or mis-spelt. A successful challenge reduces the challenger's accumulated points by 10, and an unsuccessful one increases it by 10. [3] When a player has accumulated 100 penalty points over any number of rounds, they are eliminated from the game, and the last player remaining is the winner. [8] :25

Other games

The Lexicon deck of cards can be used to play numerous games. Among them are Clock Patience, Lexicon Bridge, Lexicon Cribbage, Lexicon Criss-Cross, Lexicon Dominoes, Lexicon Eights, Lexicon Riddance, Lexicon Scrabble, various solitaire games, and team games. [7] :15 [9] :19 [10] :135

In Lexicon Criss-Cross, the players form words within a 5×5 grid using 25 cards revealed in succession from the deck. [10] :135 Points are awarded based on the length of words formed, with 10 points for 5-letter words, 7 points for 4-letter words, 3 points for 3-letter words, and 1 point for 2-letter words. [10] :135

In Lexicon Scrabble, a shuffled deck is scattered face-up on the playing surface and the players collect cards as quickly as possible to spell out a seven-letter word. [7] :15 The first player to announce their word wins the round. [7] :15 Players retain cards that were picked up for subsequent rounds, but any player who collected more than seven cards is disqualified. [7] :15

Reception

An entry in a 1934 article in The Sydney Mail stated that the cards "are packed in amusing little boxes looking like pocket dictionaries". [5] :20 In 1938, the game was promoted by Jane Froman on her radio programme Radio Row. [12] :3

In a 1973 review, Richard Sharp described it as a "durable game" owing to its simplicity, as players can learn its rules quickly and games are generally short. [8] :25

In its catalogue description, the Victoria and Albert Museum state that Lexicon is "the best known of the more sophisticated spelling card games" published during the 1920s and 1930s. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Scrabble</i> Board game with words

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike (solitaire)</span> Solitaire card game

Klondike, also known as Canfield, is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family, as well as one of the most challenging in widespread play. It has spawned numerous variants including Batsford, Easthaven, King Albert, Thumb and Pouch, Somerset or Usk and Whitehead, as well as the American variants of the games, Agnes and Westcliff. The distinguishing feature of all variants is a triangular layout of the tableau, building in ascending sequence and packing in descending order.

Word games are spoken, board, card or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Mosher Butts</span> American architect who invented Scrabble

Alfred Mosher Butts was an American architect, famous for inventing the board game Scrabble in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spider (solitaire)</span> Type of patience game

Spider is a type of patience game, and is one of the more popular two-deck solitaire games. The game originates in 1949, and its name comes from a spider's eight legs, referencing the eight foundation piles that must be filled to win the game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf (card game)</span> Type of card game

Golf is a card game invented by Elias Clark of Brighton, England. Where players try to earn the lowest number of points over the course of nine deals.

<i>Quiddler</i>

Quiddler is a card game and word game created by Set Enterprises. Players compete by spelling English words from cards in hands of increasing size, each card worth various points. The game combines aspects of Scrabble and gin rummy. The word "Quiddler" is a trademark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poker squares</span> Patience game

Poker Squares is a patience game with the objective of building the best poker hands using just 25 cards from the deck. It rewards both lucky guessing and accurate calculation of odds.

Scrabble variants are games created by changing the normal Scrabble rules or equipment.

<i>Scattergories</i> Creative-thinking category-based party game

Scattergories is a creative-thinking category-based party game originally published by Milton Bradley in 1988. The objective of the 2-to-6-player game is to score points by uniquely naming objects within a set of categories, given an initial letter, within a time limit. The game is based on a traditional game called "Categories".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nerts</span> Card game

Nerts (US), or Racing Demon (UK), is a fast-paced multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards. It is often described as a competitive form of Patience or Solitaire. In the game, players or teams race to get rid of the cards in their "Nerts pile" by playing them in sequences from aces upwards, either into their personal area or in a communal central area. Each player or team uses their own deck of playing cards throughout the game.

Lexiko was a word game invented by Alfred Mosher Butts. It was a precursor of Scrabble. The name comes from the Greek lexicos, meaning "of or for words".

Scribbage is a classic dice word game published in 1959 by the E.S. Lowe Company. 13 dice are rolled which have various letters on each side. Each letter is given a point value depending on its frequency in the English language. A timer is flipped and the player has to put the dice into words either left-to-right or up-and-down. The words must connect with each other as in crossword puzzles or Scrabble. The player must stop at the end of the time and points are counted. The player adds up the points of the letters used and subtracts the amount from the unused letters. Scribbage can be played with two or more players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Probe (parlor game)</span>

Probe is a parlor game or board game introduced in the 1960s by Parker Brothers. It is reminiscent of the simple two-person game Hangman, whose object is to guess a word chosen by another player by revealing specific letters. Probe extends the number of players to a maximum of four and introduces additional game elements that increase the levels of both skill and chance. Like Hangman, each player has a secret chosen word. But unlike Hangman, the game ends when the last word, not the first word, is revealed. All players remain in the game until the end. It was created by Ted Leavitt and licensed by him to Parker Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Spider Solitaire</span> Solitaire game in Microsoft Windows

Spider Solitaire, also known as Microsoft Spider Solitaire, is a solitaire (NA)/patience (EU) card game that is included in Microsoft Windows. It is a version of Spider. As of 2005, it was the most played game on Windows PCs, surpassing the shorter and less challenging Klondike-based Windows Solitaire.

Image is a card game developed Henry Szwarce and published by 3M in 1971. The object of the game is to put together cards that represent a historical or fictional character.

English-language Scrabble is the original version of the popular word-based board game invented in 1938 by US architect Alfred Mosher Butts, who based the game on English letter distribution in The New York Times. The Scrabble variant most popular in English is standard match play, where two players compete over a series of games. Duplicate Scrabble is not popular in English, and High score Scrabble is no longer practised.

Indian Cherokee Rummy is a card game in India with little variation from original rummy. It may be considered a cross between Rummy 500 and gin rummy. Indian Rummy is a variant of the rummy game popular in India that involves making valid sets out of 13 cards that are distributed among every player on the table. Each player is dealt 13 cards initially; if the number of players is 2, then a 52 cards deck is chosen for the game and if there are 6 players, two decks of 52 cards each is combined for the game. Each player has to draw and discard cards by turns till one player melds their cards with valid sets that meet the Rummy validation rules. It could be that Indian Rummy evolved from a version of Rummy in South Asia, Celebes Rummy, also called Rhuk.

Family Game Night is an American television game show based on Hasbro's family of board games and EA's video game franchise of the same name. The show was hosted by Todd Newton. Burton Richardson was the announcer for the first two seasons; he was replaced by Stacey J. Aswad in the third season, and Andrew Kishino was hired for the fourth season. The 60-minute program debuted on October 10, 2010, on The Hub ; it was previewed on October 9, 2010, on its sister channel, TLC. Seasons 1 and 2 contained 26 and 30 episodes respectively. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 each contained 15 episodes. Season 2 premiered on Friday, September 2, 2011, with additional games being added. The games added to the second season included Cranium Brain Breaks, Green Scream, Ratuki Go-Round, Simon Flash, Operation Sam Dunk, Trouble Pop Quiz, and Spelling Bee. However games from the previous season were still kept.

<i>Words with Friends</i> Multiplayer crossword style video game

Words with Friends is a multiplayer computer word game developed by Newtoy. Players take turns building words crossword-puzzle style in a manner similar to the classic board game Scrabble. The rules of the two games are similar, but Words with Friends is not associated with the Scrabble brand. Up to 40 games can be played simultaneously using push notifications to alert players when it is their turn. Players may look up friends either by username or through Facebook, or be randomly assigned an opponent through "Smart Match". Players can also find potential opponents using Community Match.

References

  1. "Word, number and chess games". Games & Puzzles. No. 55. Edu-Games (U.K.) Ltd. December 1976. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Lexicon". Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games . University of Waterloo Faculty of Health. 5 June 1998. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Lexicon". Victoria and Albert Museum . 29 August 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  4. 1 2 Wintle, Simon (29 August 2015). "Lexicon". The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Social news and notes". The Sydney Mail. 14 March 1934. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  6. 1 2 Blalock, Dick (19 March 1938). "Inventor of famous games began success career as schoolboy". Evening Independent . Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Bell, R.C. (December 1974). "Word games". Games & Puzzles. No. 31. Edu-Games (U.K.) Ltd. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sharp, Richard (March 1973). "Games View". Games & Puzzles. No. 11. Edu-Games (U.K.) Ltd. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 "Weekend fun for the word game fans". Evening Times . 29 July 1983. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Augarde, Tony (1994). The Oxford A to Z of word games. Oxford University Press. pp. 133–135. ISBN   0-19-866178-9.
  11. Ross, Eleanor (23 December 1938). "Household hints". Washington Reporter . Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  12. "Right out of the air". Sheffield Observer . 10 February 1938. Retrieved 23 February 2023.

Further reading

  1. https://archive.org/details/playboywinnersgu00free/page/110/mode/2up