Here’s a question for you. What connects :-
An Old English word meaning to drag
A Welsh phrase meaning little battle
A 17th century English slang word for brandy or
strong liquor
A Sanskrit word for four divisions of the military
A Dutch word meaning to claw frantically
Well, I’m sure you might well have figured out the
connection now, but just in case you haven’t, the words are :-
Dragan (draughts) -
Bach cammaun (backgammon) – which may alternatively come
from Middle English baec gamen (back game
Bingo
Chaturanga (Chess)
Schrabbelen (Scrabble)
I’ll tell you what prompted me to ask. Two of my colleagues
and I were taking a ten minute break for a cuppa (coffee in my case) away from
the phonelines. Kim happened to mention that she used o play Backgammon. Now, I
did briefly play Backgammon, back many years ago when I was in the 6th
form. This was before the world wide web was even a twinkle in Sir Tim
Berners-Lee’s eye, and I’ll be honest it never occurred to me at the time to
find out how such a splendidly unusual word came to be. But on Friday afternoon
it was a matter of whipping out the phone, and googling it.
You could possibly make a handout quiz – or at least part
of a handout quiz, based on derivation of names of games. Here’s a couple more
Which game takes its name from a 19th century
slang word for an inexperienced British army officer?
Which game probably takes its name from a French phrase
with a similar meaning to upsy-daisy?
Which game has a name that is a combination of an Old English
word meaning to dance, and an old French word meaning to score or notch?
Which game takes its name from a French word for a stick
with a curved end?
Which card game’s name ultimately derives from a German
word meaning to knock?
Which game takes its name from a masquerade costume of a
mask and cape?
Which game takes its name from the name of a Russian form
of whist?
Answers
Highlight the lines below and they should be revealed
Snooker
Hoopla
Hopscotch
Billiards
Dominoes
Poker
Bridge
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