A teetotum (or T-totum) is a form of spinning top most commonly used for gambling games. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. [1] [2] Usage goes back to (at least) ancient Greeks and Romans, with the popular put and take gambling version going back to medieval times. [2] The teetotum has variants such as the pirinola, used in Latin America, and the dreidel, used in Jewish communities during the holiday of Hanukkah.
In its earliest form, the body was square (in some cases via a stick through a regular six-sided die [3] ), marked on the four sides by the letters A (Lat. aufer, take), indicating that the player takes one from the pool, D (Lat. depone, put down) when a fine has to be paid, N (Lat. nihil, nothing), and T (Lat. totum, all), when the whole pool is to be taken. [4]
Other accounts give such letters as P, N, D (dimidium, half), and H or T or other combinations of letters. [4] Some other combinations that could be found were NG, ZS, TA, TG, NH, ND, SL and M, which included the Latin terms Zona Salve ("save all"), Tibi Adfer ("take all"), Nihil Habeas ("nothing left"), Solve L ("save 50") and Nihil Dabis ("nothing happens").
Joseph Strutt, who was born in 1749, mentions the teetotum as used in games when he was a boy: [4]
When I was a boy, the tee-totum had only four sides, each of them marked with a letter; a T for take all; an H for half, that is of the stake; an N for nothing; and a P for put down, that is, a stake equal to that you put down at first. Toys of this kind are now made with many sides and letters. [5]
The teetotum was later adapted into the dreidel, a Jewish toy played with during Hanukkah. The dreidel typically has four sides: N (נ) for nothing; G (ג) for take all; H (ה) for take half, and S (ש) or P (פֹּ) for put one in. These letters form an acronym, in Hebrew, which recalls the miracle for which the holy day is celebrated; and, in Yiddish, which explains the rules of the game. [6] [7]
The perinola is a typically six-sided variant of the teetotum used in Latin America.
Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other or against a bank. Because it requires little equipment, "street craps" can be played in informal settings. While shooting craps, players may use slang terminology to place bets and actions.
Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.
A die is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing games, and games of chance.
Joannes or John Zonaras was a Byzantine Roman historian, chronicler and theologian who lived in Constantinople. Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary (protasēkrētis) to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery on the Island of Hagia Glykeria,, where he spent the rest of his life writing books.
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect.
A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in Europe and Latin America.
Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, tabletop role-playing games, or tile-based games.
Cee-lo is a gambling game played with three six-sided dice. There is not one standard set of rules, but there are some constants that hold true to all sets of rules. The name comes from the Chinese Sì-Wŭ-Liù (四五六), meaning "four-five-six". In America it is also called "See-Low," "Four-Five-Six," "The Three Dice Game," "Roll-off!," and by several alternative spellings, as well as simply "Dice." In China it is also called "Sān Liù Bàozi" (三六豹子), or "Three-Six Leopards". In Japan, it is known as "Chinchiro" (チンチロ) or "Chinchirorin" (チンチロリン).
Astragalomancy, also known as cubomancy or astragyromancy, is a form of divination that uses dice specially marked with letters or numbers.
Trente et Quarante, also called Rouge et Noir, is a 17th-century gambling card game of French origin played with cards and a special table. It is rarely found in US casinos, but still very popular in Continental European casinos, especially in France, Italy, and Monaco. It is a simple game that usually gives the players a very good expected return of more than 98%.
Crown and Anchor is a simple dice game, traditionally played for gambling purposes by sailors in the Royal Navy as well as those in the British merchant and fishing fleets.
Holiday stamps are a type of postage stamp issued to commemorate a particular religious festival or holiday.
The mathematics of gambling is a collection of probability applications encountered in games of chance and can get included in game theory. From a mathematical point of view, the games of chance are experiments generating various types of aleatory events, and it is possible to calculate by using the properties of probability on a finite space of possibilities.
A number of related games under the Yahtzee brand have been produced. They all commonly use dice as the primary tool for game play, but all differ generally. As Yahtzee itself has been sold since 1954, the variants released over the years are more recent in comparison, with the oldest one, Triple Yahtzee, developed in 1972, eighteen years after the introduction of the parent game.
The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as The Checkered Game of Life, the first ever board game for his own company, the Milton Bradley Company. The game simulates a person's travels through their life, from early adulthood to retirement, with college if necessary, jobs, marriage, and possible children along the way. Up to six players, depending on the version, can participate in a single game. Variations of the game accommodate up to ten players.
Switch 16 is a children's board game published by Tomy in 2001.
This glossary of board games explains commonly used terms in board games, in alphabetical order. For a list of board games, see List of board games; for terms specific to chess, see Glossary of chess; for terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems.
Cacho Alalay is a popular dice game from Latin America. It is similar to Yahtzee/Yatzy. The purpose of the game is to roll five dice and score points from their combinations. The dice are rolled from a leather cup.
The dice toll was a regional supplement to the Leibzoll with which Jews had to buy free passage across regional borders. It was widespread in certain regions of Europe from the Middle Ages until the 17th century. While the Leibzoll was a monetary payment, the dice toll was comparatively worthless. The dice payment was often demanded of Jews crossing customs borders, and also played a role outside of the official customs trade as a popular form of anti-Jewish harassment.
The ancient Romans had a variety of toys and games. Children used toys such as tops, marbles, wooden swords, kites, whips, seesaws, dolls, chariots, and swings. Gambling and betting were popular games in ancient Rome. Legislation heavily regulated gambling; however, these laws were likely not enforced. Tali, Terni lapilli, Duodecim Scripta, and Ludus latrunculorum were all popular games in ancient Rome. They were similar to poker, tic-tac-toe, backgammon, and chess respectively. Nine men's morris may also have been a popular game in ancient Rome. Roman children also played games simulating historical battles and could pretend to be important government officials.
