As soon as Rob said he'd never heard of it, I thought, "If Jess had pronounced it properly he'd know it." As someone who's learnt a second language I'm always intrigued by how you can make a work unrecognisable through minor mispronunciation, because it's something you frustratingly encounter a lot. Ha ha...
The "poly" bit in monopoly comes from the greek poleo, meaning to sell. A monopolist is the only one that sells a product. I am not etymologist, by the way, but I teach economics. Great channel by the way
As a Scot, the immediate connection I found with "wist" for silence was the Scots language word "wheesht" to mean something like "hush" - often rendered "haud yer wheesht". Incidentally, etymonline also notes that the word "hush" was "huisht" in middle english. The origin of "wistful" seems to be distinct.
It's damn criminal that this channel has only 36.3k subscribers. This means there are 36.3k less than the entire world's population missing out on this delightful channel.
I know my Scottish great granny used to use the word wisht (not sure if that's the spelling) for "to be quiet". Interesting the card game whist is related
TBF is a new channel and primarily a podcast. Saying that it is along with Storied the best Ethnology channel on RUclips and will definitely grow a lot more.
24:42 the "poly" in "monopoly" is not actually "poly" as in many at all, but from "polein" meaning to sell. A monopolist, who has a monopoly, is a singular seller; opposite a monopsonist, a singular buyer, who has a monopsony, from "opsonia" meaning to buy.
On the other hand, the (not game related) Korg Mono/Poly synthesizer, though likely intended as a play on the word “monopoly,” really does mean “mono” and “poly” since it can act as a 4-voice polyphonic synth (4 notes playing at a time) or can play only one note at a time (monophonic) with more complex sound (essentially all voices working together). Totally unrelated, but interesting nonetheless.
Rob, you must see Clue, it is an underrated classic comedy from the 80's. Tremendous cast and keeping different specifics from the game make it a wonderful watch.
@jamesgwoodwork it was not popular when it debuted, it was a cult classic after the fact. I consider it underrated as a lot of people I've known have never seen it.
To be game, as in, "I'm game," means either to be ready or to be willing, or both. Thus I'm game for continuing to watch this video once I've finished typing.
The interesting thing about Clue (the movie) is it had multiple endings and the ending you got to see depended on which theater you saw the movie at. This was long before DVDs existed.
Regarding bridge, “one three” only seems relevant as far as it could be interpreted as “thirteen”. Each player starts with a hand of 13 cards, in the deck there are 13 cards of each suit, and in the play of one deal there are 13 rounds of play called “tricks”. The skill is in watching and remembering which cards have been played to help you determine which card you should play next, which is often referred to as “counting to 13”.
I don't play bridge but I'm passingly familiar with trick taking games. I thought the Russian "Herald" idea might make better sense than "1-3" because you declare (herald?) a suit and number of tricks during the bidding mechanic before actually laying any cards on the table..?
The discussion about the knight being a horse in chess made me think of the scene in the British sitcom "Bottom" where they are attempting to play the game. "How does the racehorse move again?" "It's not a racehorse, it's a knight." "Where's the knight then?" "Well, he must've fallen off." "Not much of a knight then, is he?!"
Not every country calls it a night. I believe the Russians call it a horse. However, like today, various pieces can have characteristics. For instance, there is a Star Trek themed chess set using characters and set pieces from the 1960s TV show. It is possible that some set pieces, since they were all hand made at the time, had knights as pieces.
@@orlock20 In German, one can call the chess knight "Pferd" ( = horse), too, in addition to "Springer". "Pferd" is the "layman's term", while in chess clubs and such you'll probably rather hear "Springer"
Whist, the word, is interesting for me. In the vernacular where I grew up in Fife, "wheesht!" or "haud yer wheesht!" (hold your peace!) was a pretty common way to tell someone to be quiet, and I see similarities with the Swedish "tyst" as in "håll tyst!" "keep quiet!"
The word “whisht” meaning “be quiet” is from the Irish word “éist” meaning “listen”. The Swedish word “tyst” also exists in Irish as “tost” with a similar meaning of being silent or shut up.
Several American's have told me this movie 'Clue' is brilliant. So I watched it, and I guess I just didn't get what was great about it. It was 'OK' - it made me smile at moments - but it never made me laugh out loud (and I adore Tim Curry). Perhaps Rob will have a markedly better experience! [Yes - I have seen the different endings]
@@schubertuk It's like a classic type of absurd farce that was very popular on stage in decades past. It feels like an older movie in its execution, with its snappy and clever dialogue, and where sly innuendo-ish humor is allowed, without the film being outright "dirty" with sex or being blatant with violence. Most of the film would be at home in the 1940s, with a few exceptions. Part of the reason why I love it.
@@peteg475 I appreciate that - and indeed your attempt to help. I have watched it several times (at the behest of other fans): it just doesn't make me laugh. I appreciate my position is in the minority. And I am a big Tim Curry fan - I like him in Clue - just not the whole movie. Murder by Death made a similar dull thud with me too.
16:10 In Spanish the chess piece is called “peón” with the apparent connotation of the English “peon.” I think it aligns with the medieval war model with knights and bishops, etc.
One game not mentioned here is "jacks" aka. "knucklebones" - a game of agility involving a rubber ball and little clay cubes (which would originally have been bones of appropriate size) or blunt caltrops (which are the "jacks"). Military caltrops (with sharp spikes, to pierce bootsoles or tyres) are sometimes known as jackrocks. Strictly speaking a jack is a boy (or a "youth"), especially a servant, not an adult man or an "everyman". The word "knave" has the same youthful (and rascally) connotations - and modern Danish has "knægt", meaning "lad". Tools called "jack" replace boys who once had those jobs (when child labour was not forbidden). The boy who pulled off your boot was a "boot-jack", which is what we call the wooden gadget that helps do the same job. The boy who rang the bell on the hour was "jack o' the clock" (later occasionally implemented as a mechanical figure with that very name) and the boy who held the cart while you changed the wheel was just "jack". Boys (being small, agile and recklessly unaware of their own mortality) were typically sent up towers to fix weathervanes and lightning conductors and whatnot, a profession now known as "steeplejack", "lumberjack" is similar, and presumably the word "jockey" (invariably riders of small-stature) shares the same origin. Various gadgets and tools in Danish end with the suffix _-knægt_ for example "hyldeknægt" - a shelf bracket, or "støvleknægt" which is a boot jack. A "jack" is also a nautical term, referring to a signal flag (presumably hoisted by young lads on board ship) with aspect ratio of 2:1. A "union jack" is the British national emblem flown at sea with the signal flag aspect ratio. The union flag flown on land has the aspect ratio 5:3. It is strictly incorrect to refer to this latter emblem as a "union jack".
Thank you! By the way, I found an antique metal jack (from the children's game) in the garden of our Victorian house -- only slightly larger and heavier than modern jacks, instantly recognizable.
There's a Dutch game called Schwarte Piet - Black Peter; probably has some relationship with the Moorish pirate/slave trader who accompanies St Nicholas. The Black Peter in this game is a forfeit, and is a card you don't want, and the object is to pass it off on an opponent. This gives rise to the expresssion, "Pass the Black Pete - Pass the Buck".
Also a sailor as a man Jack. “Every Man Jack”. Also Jack o’ Lantern. Not sure about Jack Hammer or modern usages as Jacked Up. Jack off (also jag off). Jack of all Trades, car Jack, Tire Jack, Hijack too. :)
1. A dire song from my youth includes the lyrics: "The worms go in, the worms go out, The worms play 'pea-knuckle' [pinochle] on your snout." 2. When "Clue" the movie was first released in the States, it depended on which cinema you saw it in as to which ending you got. Three different endings were filmed. For later, and overseas, releases, all three were bundled together at the end of the film. - *excellent* film! 😊 3. Tag/Tick-a-nick - in Australia (and possibly NZ), it's always been Tiggy.
One of my favorite souvenirs from studying abroad in Scotland is a crossword puzzle book that I brought with me to Scotland. I left it in the common room and my flatmates started filling it in with the stock answers for a Scottish person. They were mostly wrong but still fit into the spaces, things like GPs instead of MDs for doctors. It still makes me smile to think about it!
Fitting with the theory of Rob, in French 🇨🇵, a pawn is called a "pion", which comes from the Latin pedo, pedonis , a foot soldier who can be moved around on the order of the king during battles.
My parents played Pinocle a lot back in the 1960s and I learned the game from them. It requires a special deck of 48 cards including only 9 through Ace values. I grew up in Missouri and I only ever heard this game pronounced "PEE'-KNUCKLE". Not sure if that is the generally accepted pronunciation in the U.S., but I think it may be. Your show is great, by the way. You guys are bad ass wordsmiths. And yes, you got GAME!
Castling is a verb for a special movement in chess. There were different attempts of what that was, but in modern chess it's basically hiding the king in the corner while moving the rook toward the center (the king hides in his castle). Western chess has had several rule changes through the centuries and there are Eastern varieties as well. The rook is half a piece of an original chessboard piece from India. The original piece was the rook we know sitting on top of an elephant. Pawn is a word for peasant as in the Spanish word peon. In version 1.0 of Western chess, the king was "killed" so it was possible for a king to kill another king. This carries over in modern chess in which the losing player tips the king over to symbolize defeat.
I always called them rooks, and when I was a kid I thought that must where they sent the messenger birds out from (in the chess universe, I guess ?? I dunno, I was a kid using kid logic) or either they must be tricky like a rook. We also don't have rooks where I grew up at all but I knew about them from the card game and from stories.
I like to think that, when Cluedo was imported to the US, they had to chop off and store all the 'do's, so much that excess inventory became a problem. Then, when Where's Wally was imported, they dug out all those excess 'do's to rename it to Where's Waldo.
I thoroughly enjoy the witty banter that the two of you have and I like the chemistry between the two of you. I literally wait for each episode with bated breath. Also, I think Jess is kind of cute. 😊
In French 🇨🇵, "solitaire" is used to name the game, but otherwise applies to someone who is used to and/or has chosen to live alone. This can be suffered (in the case of a widow, for example) but not imposed, as it results from a choice, like for a hermit. 👏 Thank you!
I once played piezoelectricity in Scrabble. I even had the z on a triple word score tile! Everyone challenged me and we found it in the dictionary. It was a high point in my life!
I was lured into a pinochle game once with my parents and some people they knew at an picnic and I could not figure it out and I've never played it since.
Pawn comes from Peon, which was a foot soldier. Peon goes through Spanish (pedon-walker or foot soldier), to Latin (ped-foot). Whether that directly or indirectly relates to your found word for defense, I don't know, but the front line of foot soldiers was often call the defensive line.
The pawn can also be exchanged for a captured piece (promoted) if it reaches the opposite side of the board; not sure if that plays into the use with pawn shops or not
@@rnptenafly same! or something light tiddlywinks! at least i thought it would involve cups or drinking in some way! Like a draught of whiskey or something!
Pinochle was my dad’s favorite game. Here in Kansas, we pronounce it pea-knuckle. It is played with a double deck of cards. I never learned the game being a “Pitch” burnout from my childhood because that game required four players and my mom, dad, and only sibling loved the game.
A double deck but no cards below 9. And different because a 10 outranks anything but an ace. Definitely pronounced pea-knuckle. It does not require four players but when played with four becomes a team game. Can be played with two or three, but when played with three, a hand is 15 cards instead of 12.
I have to agree with the must watch clue crowd . Rob you must watch the movie it is one you will never forget. Love you guys . Nerds will rule the world and you two will be King and Queen.🤟
One thing I learned from Tom Scott's video on "Jingle Bells Batman Smells" is that the name of the game of 'tag' has an enormous variety of regional variations in the UK, but is just universally called 'tag' in the US. So "what was the game called in your school?" Is a weird question to an American.
Not only this, but a wide variety of regional words to excuse oneself from tag, such as fainights, pax, and cruces! In the United States this is almost always time-out. It's funny how which words have the most regional variations is not a constant internationally, like how Americans don't have nearly so many terms for bread rolls as the Brits. There are of course regional names for pop, but over much larger dialect areas, and the UK has some of those, too (fizzy drink, fizzy juice, pop, mineral). I'll have to check out that Tom Scott vid
I called it touch growing up in the 90s and early 2000s in Bristol. We also played a game called stuck in the mud, when you were caught you'd stand in place with your legs apart and one of the other people being chased could crawl between your legs to free you
Presumably related to tag was a game I enjoyed when I lived in Singapore which we called Kingie (or Kingy) - which I later learned was known as Hot Rice when I returned to the UK). The person who was 'it' had a tennis ball, which they threw at anyone else who was playing, aiming to hit them in the torso. If they succeeded, they joined the original person in throwing the ball at the other players. The other players could not pick the ball up or throw it, but they could hit it with their fists to send if off in another direction. Great fun.
In Spanish the rook is called a torre which means tower. The bishop is called the alfil which is from an old word for elephant which is what the piece was in India.
Thanks for mentioning the meaning of "monopole" in physics. James Maxwell in the 19th century created a unified theory of electric and magnetic forces. In general, it is possible for electric fields to be present as monopoles, but magnetic fields occur only as dipoles. However, from understanding that is beyond me, there is a belief that there is just one magnetic monopole in the universe.
In the "back"-area of a backgammon board is called the "lurch." The winner scores a "backgammon" (triple score) if he bears off all his checkers before the opponent has borne off any of his and has one or more checkers left in the lurch.
38:29 Quoits is not a bean bag toss in Aus - its a game with a small pole to which you cast rings to see if you can get one on the pole. More poled, more points
One for Rob, the movie Clue was directed by Jonathan Lynn who was most famous in the UK for co-writing Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister which (for those that don’t know) was famed for it’s wordplay and verbiage.
I love Robwords as much as this one. Jess, get your own channel, too! There's over 250k English words (I learned this from Robwords), so there's plenty of etymology to go around.
Yeah as I’ve read you two are the new stars. Been watching, Rob for a couple of years, “Jess and Rob’ for the better part of more than a year. Keep it going please.😜
The German verb "pochen" also has the meaning (and is indeed in that way very often) of "to insist". It's then used in the phrase "auf etwas pochen" Which does not mean to knock on something but to insist on something, which fits quite well with a poker bluff.
The mental image that connects "auf etwas pochen" ("to insist on something") and poker is when you "insist" on your opponent laying their cards on the table by staring at them intensively and tapping/knocking just as intensively with your index finger on the table.
In Dutch chess is called Schaak/Schaken, and check/checkmate are Schaak/Schaakmat. A quick google tells me it's similar in German. Interesting how the "Shah mat" got so well preserved. Pawn is pion, rook is toren (tower), knight is paard (horse), and the bishop is called the loper (walker). The queen is also called the dame (lady), though koningin (queen) is used as well. The king is just the koning (king). Also checkers is called Dammen. I guess it's like building a dam? idk
In most languages, Checkers is called Dame(s), as these are the more powerful pieces you get when one of yours reaches the opposite row of the board. But I can't tell why the English crown Kings in this case while the continent turns Men into Ladies.
"Game" carries a social implication - games always involved people coming together (which I suppose was their real purpose). The roots are "ga" which is equivalent to Latin "co" (meaning 'together' or 'joint enterprise') and "man" which just broadly means people (in Germanic languages). It was shortened in English to avoid confusion of the second syllable (in "gaman") with common grammatical suffixes. Logically therefore, "Patience" and a lot of computer "games" are not games at all, just "pastimes". I remember a lot of books called specifically "Games and Pastimes" so the distinction hasn't entirely been lost.
11:30 - I remember whist as the card game that Phileas Fogg played as he traveled around the world in 80 days. 16:02 - Mongo is only a pawn in the game of life.
Pinochle (pronounced pea+knuckle on USA) requires separate deck, or taking two decks with identical backings and keeping only 9’s, 10’s, Aces, and face cards-two of each suit. The other cards are not present in a 48-card pinochle deck. You are correct that there is bidding, and also melding in addition to strategic discards that comprise the playing of tricks and scoring tricks and melds determines winners, although it is different from contract bridge. Pinochle was popular through the early 20th Century and waned in the 70s. In the 40s-60s friends / couples could get together for an evening of pinochle much as they would for bridge or canasta in those days. Pinochle is said to of come from Germany, although it was derived from two European games of Bezique and Binokel - the corruption of the latter often is attributed as the origin of pinochle. As mentioned, the deck has 48 cards (9,10,J,Q,K,A x 2 x 4 suits) - the Jack of Spades and Queen of Diamonds combination is referred to as a pinochle if memory serves.
Well, at least the name "chemin de fer" is obviously French (because the game itself is). And it means "railroad", the literal meaning being "iron path" from "chemin (path) de (of) fer (iron)".
I've heard pawns also called Squires. I'm curious if the "pledge" aspect of pawn comes into play or if it's like a "pledged footman" sort of idea. On the chariot idea XiangQi, a Chinese game related to chess, still has chariots and wagons.
Are there episodes that cover words like house, home, apartment, flat, kitchen, chimney, flue, crib, bassinet, robe, slippers? Thank you for the great channel.
18:14 there’s an equivalent piece in Chinese chess that’s called chariot （車, but pronounced as jü, instead of the normal che)! It also moves the same way the rook does. The character of 車 is meant to look like a chariot/ cart viewed from the top-down.
Same. Though our family pronounced it "pea-knuckle". A good family game: easy enough for 10-year-olds to play, but admitting of strategies that gave adults an edge, and a social element that led to a lot of amusing table talk.
I love words and language. I'm also half-ass ok at chess. The "connection" between "pawn shop" and "pawn" in chess is fascinating. It has to be related to "least value" (you pawn, sell, sacrifice that which is of least value, and you have a lot of). And then there's "exchanging" (pawning) your pawn for a more valuable piece when the pawn reaches the end of it's journey . (I'm even more half-assed at word entomology, and stuff like that:)
Great mimes think alike. I was just thinking we need a game words. Et voila! I was thinking board games and sports games. Clearly you are saving sports words for later. Here is my sports word question. Only in the last year have I understood what a scrum is, since we Americans don't use the word. But it sounds like scrimmage. Are they related?
Scrum (in rugby) is actually short for scrummage. Presumably misheard (or simply a variant of scrimmage). As American football is more closely related to rugby than to football, I feel sure it‘s the same word.
@@michaelmedlinger6399 Scrim is a type of semitransparent mesh curtain in stagecraft. Lit from the front the audience sees it as a normal backdrop but backlit reveals action occurring behind the "fronted" reality (usually a surprise). This may actually be closer to what occurs on a football line - orderly in the front, but some positions moving laterally behind for misdirection before the snap, or surprise zig (or zag) at the snap.
You can trade a pawn in for a queen if you can get it safely to your opponents end of the board, so perhaps that's where the security for a deposit comes in.
Thanks for the wonderful episode! In my family we play double-deck solitaire against each other, sometimes six people playing. It can get pretty crazy with everyone playing all of their aces in the center and playing on each other's cards. We also play a variation on Spades called Back-alley Bridge, in which you increase the number of cards each hand (up to 13 and back down), and the next card determines what suit is trumps, plus the jokers are the two highest trumps. When we were in Germany this summer, we learned a game called As$hole from our German friends, which was quite fun. My favorite game, though, is Boggle, which nobody ever wants to play with me since I am so good. Once I played the word QUADRIGA in the app version and scored over 200 points for it. :)
Where I grew up in Norway tag was called "tikken" and you'd say "tikk" when you caught someone. Interesting to hear there are English versions more similar to that than tag.
I remember being astonished, when I saw the name "Cornhole" for a game in the toy section of stores in the last 20 or so years. I thought; don't the people marketing this game know, that to cornhole someone is to perform an "unnatural" act on them? Maybe somebody was joking around, & called it the naughty slang term "cornhole", when they taught someone the game, but that someone didn't get the joke, then began to market the game as Cornhole in the 21st Century? I don't remember what this old game was called back in the 20th Century. Was it "Beanbag" or something like that? It certainly wasn't "Cornhole".
Trouble, frustration, ludo, pachisi, aggravation, are all the same gameboard with the same mechanics, very slight variations of rules. I'm sure there are so many more
In the discussion of chess, as played in Europe, excluding Chinese chess or Shogi in Japan, the rook is a problem. I would like your comments on the Lewis chessmen, from Norway. Their rooks were sometimes called “warders” and portrayed as berserkers, who seem to be biting their shields to hold themselves back from battle. This is another reason for moving in a straight line, like a chariot.
I have fond memories of vacationing (without my 4 brothers) at my Nana’s house where she taught me pinochle. I still have my deck of pinochle cards … it is a different deck of cards than the standard one. Pinochle was very popular here in the US.
In the US, the game which Rob called Frustration is know as Sorry, which in turn is based on a game called Aggravation.Trouble is similar, but not the same. Both Sorry and Trouble had the "popomatic bubble," and were both very parchisi-like games. Aggravation was also similar to parchisi, but without the bubble, and used a wooden board with little holes carved onto the wood, where colored marbles would fit.
@@prman9984and not all the numbers meant just "move X forward" I think 4 was "move 4 back " and I think one card let you move two different pieces. With the move back card. I remember interpreting it to let you move back toward the start of the game and skip going around the board
For Wordle, try 'SHARE' or 'SHIRE.' H is in a lot of digraphs and is usually in the 2nd or 5th position, while identifying a silent E can give huge clues to the structure of the word. R is also in many digraphs, S is the most common consonant, and A or I are the second-most-common vowels. I've had outstanding success with these.
While discussing the origins of "Jack" I hoped you would have touched on "Jack of all trades" as a term for everyman. Great video! Keep them coming please!
The origin of pawn was very interesting, and I think makes perfect sense in the context of the game in that the pawns pledge their allegiance to the king and are routinely sacrificed to protect him, much like the connotation of a pledge at a fraternity, in that the pledge swears allegiance to the brotherhood.
Echoing all the calls for Rob to watch Clue. It does a pretty good job of blending British and North American humour. I play a variant of Wordle called Octordle where you need to get 8 results simultaneously. I typically use RAISE, MOULT, PUNCH/PINCH (punch is generally better to discover if the U is in the 2nd slot if the first two words have shown U is in one of the words) and if necessary, WEDGY. It does leave some gaps because B and F tend to fit the same structures.
About pawn. Around 17:30. In modern Icelandic the word for ordering something, as in order online is the verb “panta”. It can also be used to call dibs on something. As in calling “shotgun” to sit in a front seat or calling “not it” in a game of tag.
Pinochle is pronounced ( at least in my family) pea-knuckle
That’s the pronunciation I know as well. I grew up in the Midwest.
Yeppers, same here, although I've never played pinochle.
Looks like that's pretty standard, and I ought to have listened before speaking! - Jess
New England here - I've only ever heard that pronunciation.
As soon as Rob said he'd never heard of it, I thought, "If Jess had pronounced it properly he'd know it." As someone who's learnt a second language I'm always intrigued by how you can make a work unrecognisable through minor mispronunciation, because it's something you frustratingly encounter a lot. Ha ha...
Words Unraveled has very quickly risen to one of my all time favorite channels on RUclips.
Thanks Jess and Rob 😊
Thank you for watching! 🥰
The unleashed joy that Jess and Rob bring to etymology is infectious.
The "poly" bit in monopoly comes from the greek poleo, meaning to sell. A monopolist is the only one that sells a product. I am not etymologist, by the way, but I teach economics. Great channel by the way
TIL the word "monopsony" which is the opposite
As a Scot, the immediate connection I found with "wist" for silence was the Scots language word "wheesht" to mean something like "hush" - often rendered "haud yer wheesht".
Incidentally, etymonline also notes that the word "hush" was "huisht" in middle english. The origin of "wistful" seems to be distinct.
Same in Ireland. It also means Listen, because you need to be quiet to do so.
a Cymraeg. And in Welsh
In Gaelic it can be ist! or uist! Meaning be quiet
And depending on whereabouts in Scotland you come from, it can be wheesht or whisht.
In Geordie too - 'wheesht lads, had yer gobs' means to be quiet.
It's damn criminal that this channel has only 36.3k subscribers. This means there are 36.3k less than the entire world's population missing out on this delightful channel.
Ive just recomnended it to a Lady in the US that I know through a group in a game. Messages are open so maybe someone else will spot it as well.
Absolutely agree!
At least the Anglosphere...
I know my Scottish great granny used to use the word wisht (not sure if that's the spelling) for "to be quiet". Interesting the card game whist is related
TBF is a new channel and primarily a podcast.
Saying that it is along with Storied the best Ethnology channel on RUclips and will definitely grow a lot more.
24:42 the "poly" in "monopoly" is not actually "poly" as in many at all, but from "polein" meaning to sell. A monopolist, who has a monopoly, is a singular seller; opposite a monopsonist, a singular buyer, who has a monopsony, from "opsonia" meaning to buy.
On the other hand, the (not game related) Korg Mono/Poly synthesizer, though likely intended as a play on the word “monopoly,” really does mean “mono” and “poly” since it can act as a 4-voice polyphonic synth (4 notes playing at a time) or can play only one note at a time (monophonic) with more complex sound (essentially all voices working together). Totally unrelated, but interesting nonetheless.
Which language are you using for these definitions?
@@Pocketfarmer1If you mean what language do these roots come from, Greek.
@@jasonlescalleet5611 Nice to see another synth-head in here, I was thinking similarly.
Rob, you must see Clue, it is an underrated classic comedy from the 80's. Tremendous cast and keeping different specifics from the game make it a wonderful watch.
And it had different endings, depending on which version you saw.
@@TonyP_Yes-its-Me True! Fortunately all of the endings are on the home releases of the movie.
Not sure it's that underrated. I'm never met anyone who dislikes that movie (indifference at worst).
@jamesgwoodwork it was not popular when it debuted, it was a cult classic after the fact. I consider it underrated as a lot of people I've known have never seen it.
@@ZenthaneX of course there's the comedy Murder by Death,a Tim Curry classic!💘💘💘
To be game, as in, "I'm game," means either to be ready or to be willing, or both. Thus I'm game for continuing to watch this video once I've finished typing.
The interesting thing about Clue (the movie) is it had multiple endings and the ending you got to see depended on which theater you saw the movie at. This was long before DVDs existed.
It's a shame the film was more cult than classic. I think multiple endings in more movies would be fun.
It would be interesting if your friends and family saw it in different cinemas then talked about the film afterwards. You all wouldn’t have a clue.
Oh man, you must see the film "Clue". It has a fantastic cast and is legitimately wonderful.
It's one of my favorites! Murder by Death is similarly funny.
And it has 3 different endings
That sounds like a red herring 😏
Regarding bridge, “one three” only seems relevant as far as it could be interpreted as “thirteen”. Each player starts with a hand of 13 cards, in the deck there are 13 cards of each suit, and in the play of one deal there are 13 rounds of play called “tricks”. The skill is in watching and remembering which cards have been played to help you determine which card you should play next, which is often referred to as “counting to 13”.
I thought maybe because in the game, one player is "dummy" while the other three play. But I think your explanation is better.
Its a while since I played bridge and I was only a novice. But I didnt recall anything to do with 1 and 3.
Very enjoyable game.
That's what I immediately thought of, 52 cards between 4 players equals 13 cards each.
I don't play bridge but I'm passingly familiar with trick taking games. I thought the Russian "Herald" idea might make better sense than "1-3" because you declare (herald?) a suit and number of tricks during the bidding mechanic before actually laying any cards on the table..?
Clue (the movie) is definitely one of my all-time favourite comedies - and Tim Curry was the perfect butler.
The discussion about the knight being a horse in chess made me think of the scene in the British sitcom "Bottom" where they are attempting to play the game.
"How does the racehorse move again?"
"It's not a racehorse, it's a knight."
"Where's the knight then?"
"Well, he must've fallen off."
"Not much of a knight then, is he?!"
@@666deadman1988 🤣
Not every country calls it a night. I believe the Russians call it a horse. However, like today, various pieces can have characteristics. For instance, there is a Star Trek themed chess set using characters and set pieces from the 1960s TV show. It is possible that some set pieces, since they were all hand made at the time, had knights as pieces.
@@orlock20
In German, one can call the chess knight "Pferd" ( = horse), too, in addition to "Springer". "Pferd" is the "layman's term", while in chess clubs and such you'll probably rather hear "Springer"
Paard 🇳🇱, after all, that's what it is.
And furthermore, there are:
Toren (Rook);
Loper (Bishop);
Dame/Koningin (Queen);
Koning (King);
Pion (pawn).
In my chess set the knight rides a horse. The Spanish call the knight: caballo, horse.
Whist, the word, is interesting for me. In the vernacular where I grew up in Fife, "wheesht!" or "haud yer wheesht!" (hold your peace!) was a pretty common way to tell someone to be quiet, and I see similarities with the Swedish "tyst" as in "håll tyst!" "keep quiet!"
beat me to it
Here in Ireland too "whisht" would be used to tell someone to keep quiet
I'm from Northern Ireland and heard this many times from my ma growing up!
@@666deadman1988 I'm from Belfast, and in our family we'd say 'houl yer wheesht' if you wanted someone to be quiet.
The word “whisht” meaning “be quiet” is from the Irish word “éist” meaning “listen”. The Swedish word “tyst” also exists in Irish as “tost” with a similar meaning of being silent or shut up.
The movie Clue is one of Tim Curry's best roles. You definitely need to watch it, Rob.
Several American's have told me this movie 'Clue' is brilliant. So I watched it, and I guess I just didn't get what was great about it. It was 'OK' - it made me smile at moments - but it never made me laugh out loud (and I adore Tim Curry). Perhaps Rob will have a markedly better experience! [Yes - I have seen the different endings]
@@schubertuk It's like a classic type of absurd farce that was very popular on stage in decades past. It feels like an older movie in its execution, with its snappy and clever dialogue, and where sly innuendo-ish humor is allowed, without the film being outright "dirty" with sex or being blatant with violence. Most of the film would be at home in the 1940s, with a few exceptions. Part of the reason why I love it.
@@peteg475 I appreciate that - and indeed your attempt to help. I have watched it several times (at the behest of other fans): it just doesn't make me laugh. I appreciate my position is in the minority. And I am a big Tim Curry fan - I like him in Clue - just not the whole movie. Murder by Death made a similar dull thud with me too.
16:10 In Spanish the chess piece is called “peón” with the apparent connotation of the English “peon.” I think it aligns with the medieval war model with knights and bishops, etc.
One game not mentioned here is "jacks" aka. "knucklebones" - a game of agility involving a rubber ball and little clay cubes (which would originally have been bones of appropriate size) or blunt caltrops (which are the "jacks"). Military caltrops (with sharp spikes, to pierce bootsoles or tyres) are sometimes known as jackrocks.
Strictly speaking a jack is a boy (or a "youth"), especially a servant, not an adult man or an "everyman". The word "knave" has the same youthful (and rascally) connotations - and modern Danish has "knægt", meaning "lad".
Tools called "jack" replace boys who once had those jobs (when child labour was not forbidden). The boy who pulled off your boot was a "boot-jack", which is what we call the wooden gadget that helps do the same job. The boy who rang the bell on the hour was "jack o' the clock" (later occasionally implemented as a mechanical figure with that very name) and the boy who held the cart while you changed the wheel was just "jack".
Boys (being small, agile and recklessly unaware of their own mortality) were typically sent up towers to fix weathervanes and lightning conductors and whatnot, a profession now known as "steeplejack", "lumberjack" is similar, and presumably the word "jockey" (invariably riders of small-stature) shares the same origin.
Various gadgets and tools in Danish end with the suffix _-knægt_ for example "hyldeknægt" - a shelf bracket, or "støvleknægt" which is a boot jack.
A "jack" is also a nautical term, referring to a signal flag (presumably hoisted by young lads on board ship) with aspect ratio of 2:1. A "union jack" is the British national emblem flown at sea with the signal flag aspect ratio. The union flag flown on land has the aspect ratio 5:3. It is strictly incorrect to refer to this latter emblem as a "union jack".
I have often wondered at the origins of “jack” everything. I think this could be a whole podcast!
Thank you! By the way, I found an antique metal jack (from the children's game) in the garden of our Victorian house -- only slightly larger and heavier than modern jacks, instantly recognizable.
Reminds me of the Muppet Movie.
"Jack not name. Jack job" says the giant monster who lifts a car by the bumper and drags it away
There's a Dutch game called Schwarte Piet - Black Peter; probably has some relationship with the Moorish pirate/slave trader who accompanies St Nicholas. The Black Peter in this game is a forfeit, and is a card you don't want, and the object is to pass it off on an opponent. This gives rise to the expresssion, "Pass the Black Pete - Pass the Buck".
Also a sailor as a man Jack. “Every Man Jack”. Also Jack o’ Lantern. Not sure about Jack Hammer or modern usages as Jacked Up. Jack off (also jag off). Jack of all Trades, car Jack, Tire Jack, Hijack too. :)
1. A dire song from my youth includes the lyrics:
"The worms go in, the worms go out,
The worms play 'pea-knuckle' [pinochle] on your snout."
2. When "Clue" the movie was first released in the States, it depended on which cinema you saw it in as to which ending you got. Three different endings were filmed. For later, and overseas, releases, all three were bundled together at the end of the film.
- *excellent* film! 😊
3. Tag/Tick-a-nick - in Australia (and possibly NZ), it's always been Tiggy.
Yes Rob you definitely need to see Clue. It’s smart and funny
One of my favorite souvenirs from studying abroad in Scotland is a crossword puzzle book that I brought with me to Scotland. I left it in the common room and my flatmates started filling it in with the stock answers for a Scottish person. They were mostly wrong but still fit into the spaces, things like GPs instead of MDs for doctors. It still makes me smile to think about it!
Fitting with the theory of Rob, in French 🇨🇵, a pawn is called a "pion", which comes from the Latin pedo, pedonis , a foot soldier who can be moved around on the order of the king during battles.
Interesting that 'pion' pronounced in English would be peon, a person of low value or expendable like a pawn of war.
Came here to say the same thing
@@elissajaguar Ditto
Yes, in Italian, as I learned from Italian chess players online, a pawn is a "pedone": a walker, or in modern terms, a pedestrian.
Absolutely the same for Portuguese: "peão".
My parents played Pinocle a lot back in the 1960s and I learned the game from them. It requires a special deck of 48 cards including only 9 through Ace values. I grew up in Missouri and I only ever heard this game pronounced "PEE'-KNUCKLE". Not sure if that is the generally accepted pronunciation in the U.S., but I think it may be. Your show is great, by the way. You guys are bad ass wordsmiths. And yes, you got GAME!
I always thought a castle in chess was like a siege tower rather than a static fortress.
Castling is a verb for a special movement in chess. There were different attempts of what that was, but in modern chess it's basically hiding the king in the corner while moving the rook toward the center (the king hides in his castle). Western chess has had several rule changes through the centuries and there are Eastern varieties as well.
The rook is half a piece of an original chessboard piece from India. The original piece was the rook we know sitting on top of an elephant.
Pawn is a word for peasant as in the Spanish word peon.
In version 1.0 of Western chess, the king was "killed" so it was possible for a king to kill another king. This carries over in modern chess in which the losing player tips the king over to symbolize defeat.
@@orlock20 I’m a plebeian who is rubbish at playing chess so I have always just called it a castle because of it having crenellations round the top. 🤣
@@orlock20 Hence, presumably, the Elephant and Castle as in the name of a pub or a London placename.
I always called them rooks, and when I was a kid I thought that must where they sent the messenger birds out from (in the chess universe, I guess ?? I dunno, I was a kid using kid logic) or either they must be tricky like a rook. We also don't have rooks where I grew up at all but I knew about them from the card game and from stories.
I like to think that, when Cluedo was imported to the US, they had to chop off and store all the 'do's, so much that excess inventory became a problem. Then, when Where's Wally was imported, they dug out all those excess 'do's to rename it to Where's Waldo.
10/10 theory right here.
I've had similar thoughts! But I wonder... after changing all the Wallys to Waldos, what are they going to do with the excess -ly's?
@@michaels4340 Lolly sold them at his adverb store.
I believe all the lys were used by politicians
@@michaelturner2806 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I thoroughly enjoy the witty banter that the two of you have and I like the chemistry between the two of you. I literally wait for each episode with bated breath. Also, I think Jess is kind of cute. 😊
Bated, not baited.
@@AdDewaard-hu3xk You know, it was bated initially but I changed it. I will change it back. Thank you. :)
Agreed, on the innuendo as well as the cuteness.
Literally waiting with bated breath? You need a hobby. :-)
@pdyt2009 Have you never heard of exaggerating for effect?
In French 🇨🇵, "solitaire" is used to name the game, but otherwise applies to someone who is used to and/or has chosen to live alone. This can be suffered (in the case of a widow, for example) but not imposed, as it results from a choice, like for a hermit.
👏 Thank you!
I can only watch this on RUclips because I have to see Jess make Rob blush. Hilarious every time. 🤣
i like to put the time stamps!!!
And every episode brings out his "humor"
I once played piezoelectricity in Scrabble. I even had the z on a triple word score tile! Everyone challenged me and we found it in the dictionary. It was a high point in my life!
Actually I guess the z was on the double letter. An memory!
@@yogawithlisasxm5429 You get bragging rights for comments on your own comment. Double word score.
@@Στο_πιο_δικαιο I challenge!
Pinochle is played with a special deck. It only has 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, but has two of each (in all suits).
Often we had to restart a card game when we mistakenly took our parent’s pinochle deck.
And the ten is next down from the ace. Values are A-10-K-Q-J-9 and no other cards.
On top of pinochle having a 48 card deck, there's also double pinochle that has 80 cards, which uses two pinochle decks without the 9s.
I was lured into a pinochle game once with my parents and some people they knew at an picnic and I could not figure it out and I've never played it since.
My parents used to play pinochle all the time in Ohio, they just loved it. ♠️♦️♣️♥️
Pawn comes from Peon, which was a foot soldier. Peon goes through Spanish (pedon-walker or foot soldier), to Latin (ped-foot). Whether that directly or indirectly relates to your found word for defense, I don't know, but the front line of foot soldiers was often call the defensive line.
The pawn can also be exchanged for a captured piece (promoted) if it reaches the opposite side of the board; not sure if that plays into the use with pawn shops or not
Omg! Ive seen people playing draughts in books! Never knew it was checkers! Clarity achieved!
Yeah, I always thought it would have been a card game.
@@rnptenafly same! or something light tiddlywinks! at least i thought it would involve cups or drinking in some way! Like a draught of whiskey or something!
Pinochle was my dad’s favorite game. Here in Kansas, we pronounce it pea-knuckle. It is played with a double deck of cards. I never learned the game being a “Pitch” burnout from my childhood because that game required four players and my mom, dad, and only sibling loved the game.
A double deck but no cards below 9. And different because a 10 outranks anything but an ace. Definitely pronounced pea-knuckle. It does not require four players but when played with four becomes a team game. Can be played with two or three, but when played with three, a hand is 15 cards instead of 12.
This episode was pure fun, as games are meant to be.
I have to agree with the must watch clue crowd . Rob you must watch the movie it is one you will never forget. Love you guys . Nerds will rule the world and you two will be King and Queen.🤟
Clue is my favorit movie of all time!
Thanks for telling the Landlord Game story.
Capitalists truly will use anticapitalist messaging for its own advantage if you aren't explicit and radical enough.
I've been meaning to find the rules for the collaborative version & see how the play is different
One thing I learned from Tom Scott's video on "Jingle Bells Batman Smells" is that the name of the game of 'tag' has an enormous variety of regional variations in the UK, but is just universally called 'tag' in the US. So "what was the game called in your school?" Is a weird question to an American.
Not only this, but a wide variety of regional words to excuse oneself from tag, such as fainights, pax, and cruces! In the United States this is almost always time-out.
It's funny how which words have the most regional variations is not a constant internationally, like how Americans don't have nearly so many terms for bread rolls as the Brits. There are of course regional names for pop, but over much larger dialect areas, and the UK has some of those, too (fizzy drink, fizzy juice, pop, mineral). I'll have to check out that Tom Scott vid
We call "tag" tig in Central Scotland.
We called it "tips" in New South Wales and Canberra in Australia. Melbourne and Adelaide probably have different names because they're weird 😂
I called it touch growing up in the 90s and early 2000s in Bristol. We also played a game called stuck in the mud, when you were caught you'd stand in place with your legs apart and one of the other people being chased could crawl between your legs to free you
Presumably related to tag was a game I enjoyed when I lived in Singapore which we called Kingie (or Kingy) - which I later learned was known as Hot Rice when I returned to the UK). The person who was 'it' had a tennis ball, which they threw at anyone else who was playing, aiming to hit them in the torso. If they succeeded, they joined the original person in throwing the ball at the other players. The other players could not pick the ball up or throw it, but they could hit it with their fists to send if off in another direction. Great fun.
In Spanish the rook is called a torre which means tower. The bishop is called the alfil which is from an old word for elephant which is what the piece was in India.
Also a tower (la tour) in french, but the fool (fou) instead of the Bishop.
@@Anne-Enez You mean the fool, right? Et la tour, y la torre. (le tour is a different word)
They could have spent a lot more time on chess pieces.
German:
Pawn = Bauer (literally "farmer", peasant, villager)
King = König ("king", no surprise there ;-) )
Queen = Dame
Rook = Turm ("tower")
Knight = Springer (jumper) or simply Pferd (horse)
Bishop = Läufer ("runner")
Thanks for mentioning the meaning of "monopole" in physics. James Maxwell in the 19th century created a unified theory of electric and magnetic forces. In general, it is possible for electric fields to be present as monopoles, but magnetic fields occur only as dipoles. However, from understanding that is beyond me, there is a belief that there is just one magnetic monopole in the universe.
In the "back"-area of a backgammon board is called the "lurch." The winner scores a "backgammon" (triple score) if he bears off all his checkers before the opponent has borne off any of his and has one or more checkers left in the lurch.
38:29 Quoits is not a bean bag toss in Aus - its a game with a small pole to which you cast rings to see if you can get one on the pole. More poled, more points
That's what I know of as "quoits" in the UK too. A pole you throw rings at.
One for Rob, the movie Clue was directed by Jonathan Lynn who was most famous in the UK for co-writing Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister which (for those that don’t know) was famed for it’s wordplay and verbiage.
Thanks so much for the EQ on Jess's voice. Her voice was driving me crazy on the older episodes. Good work, great show.
As a kid, even though I didn’t know how to play it, I knew the game was called backgammon because it was on the back of the checkerboard.
*Clue* is a delightful movie. I love it.
I love Robwords as much as this one. Jess, get your own channel, too! There's over 250k English words (I learned this from Robwords), so there's plenty of etymology to go around.
My preferred platform is TikTok! I have a pretty tidy following over there. - Jess
The statement "card games are just bad English pronunciation of foreign words" will stay with me forever.
Of course rhat covers at peast a third of English
Yeah as I’ve read you two are the new stars. Been watching, Rob for a couple of years, “Jess and Rob’ for the better part of more than a year. Keep it going please.😜
As a native Michigander, I really enjoyed this conversation. I played many of these games (as well as others) during long dark winter nights.
This was a fascinating episode! Thanks for all you do, Rob and Jess - truly my favorite videos to watch! ❤❤
Thank you for watching!
The German verb "pochen" also has the meaning (and is indeed in that way very often) of "to insist". It's then used in the phrase "auf etwas pochen" Which does not mean to knock on something but to insist on something, which fits quite well with a poker bluff.
And pochen is also "bluffen" in Dutch!
@@MeteorMark Pochen in Dutch still means brag.
@@AJansenNLthat's what I meant
The mental image that connects "auf etwas pochen" ("to insist on something") and poker is when you "insist" on your opponent laying their cards on the table by staring at them intensively and tapping/knocking just as intensively with your index finger on the table.
In Dutch chess is called Schaak/Schaken, and check/checkmate are Schaak/Schaakmat. A quick google tells me it's similar in German. Interesting how the "Shah mat" got so well preserved. Pawn is pion, rook is toren (tower), knight is paard (horse), and the bishop is called the loper (walker). The queen is also called the dame (lady), though koningin (queen) is used as well. The king is just the koning (king).
Also checkers is called Dammen. I guess it's like building a dam? idk
In most languages, Checkers is called Dame(s), as these are the more powerful pieces you get when one of yours reaches the opposite row of the board. But I can't tell why the English crown Kings in this case while the continent turns Men into Ladies.
Konig und Konigen
"Game" carries a social implication - games always involved people coming together (which I suppose was their real purpose). The roots are "ga" which is equivalent to Latin "co" (meaning 'together' or 'joint enterprise') and "man" which just broadly means people (in Germanic languages). It was shortened in English to avoid confusion of the second syllable (in "gaman") with common grammatical suffixes. Logically therefore, "Patience" and a lot of computer "games" are not games at all, just "pastimes". I remember a lot of books called specifically "Games and Pastimes" so the distinction hasn't entirely been lost.
As kids, our dad would play pontoon (blackjack) with us every sunday, we also played a game called Manila ( Texas holdem ).
Cornhole!!!! Quoits!!! You two had me laughing until I cried!
That fact about check's etymology blew me away!
One of my favorite etymology facts! - Jess
Y’all gotta clip the cornhole bit. Too good. Love the show. Great chemistry. Rob’s blushes alone could have their own shorts page.
Make a Short upload out of it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody blush so vividly on YT, lol.. endearing…
Wow I’m realising quite how many card games I can play thanks Auntie Mary 😁
Auntie Mary is the GOAT!
Quoits was always a popular game on board ocean liners when I was a young lad.
When I was a kid in UK we had a card game called Lexicon which was identical to scrabble but without the board.
11:30 - I remember whist as the card game that Phileas Fogg played as he traveled around the world in 80 days. 16:02 - Mongo is only a pawn in the game of life.
Pinochle (pronounced pea+knuckle on USA) requires separate deck, or taking two decks with identical backings and keeping only 9’s, 10’s, Aces, and face cards-two of each suit. The other cards are not present in a 48-card pinochle deck.
You are correct that there is bidding, and also melding in addition to strategic discards that comprise the playing of tricks and scoring tricks and melds determines winners, although it is different from contract bridge.
Pinochle was popular through the early 20th Century and waned in the 70s. In the 40s-60s friends / couples could get together for an evening of pinochle much as they would for bridge or canasta in those days.
Pinochle is said to of come from Germany, although it was derived from two European games of Bezique and Binokel - the corruption of the latter often is attributed as the origin of pinochle.
As mentioned, the deck has 48 cards (9,10,J,Q,K,A x 2 x 4 suits) - the Jack of Spades and Queen of Diamonds combination is referred to as a pinochle if memory serves.
Fabulous, thank you!
A "pinochle" is a jack of diamonds and queen of spades and worth 40 points in the melding phase.
I have so much fun listening to these episodes. I just hope one day you guys throw a party and invite me!
I'm from Las Vegas, NV and I wish a few more of our games had been covered, i.e. baccarat or chemin de fer, roulette, craps and keno.
I was hoping for Yahtzee and Cribbage.
Well, at least the name "chemin de fer" is obviously French (because the game itself is). And it means "railroad", the literal meaning being "iron path" from "chemin (path) de (of) fer (iron)".
My favorite channel. Thank you!
I've heard pawns also called Squires. I'm curious if the "pledge" aspect of pawn comes into play or if it's like a "pledged footman" sort of idea.
On the chariot idea XiangQi, a Chinese game related to chess, still has chariots and wagons.
Are there episodes that cover words like house, home, apartment, flat, kitchen, chimney, flue, crib, bassinet, robe, slippers? Thank you for the great channel.
18:14 there’s an equivalent piece in Chinese chess that’s called chariot （車, but pronounced as jü, instead of the normal che)! It also moves the same way the rook does. The character of 車 is meant to look like a chariot/ cart viewed from the top-down.
Clue the Movie is Madeline Kahn, and Christopher Lloyd turned up to 11 .. and Tim Curry turned up to 12 ... !
8:48 can confirm pinochle pretty popular in the Midwest, at least among older folks. It's a bidding and trick taking game.
Same. Though our family pronounced it "pea-knuckle".
A good family game: easy enough for 10-year-olds to play, but admitting of strategies that gave adults an edge, and a social element that led to a lot of amusing table talk.
@larrywest42 yeah we pronounce it that way also.
I love words and language. I'm also half-ass ok at chess.
The "connection" between "pawn shop" and "pawn" in chess is fascinating.
It has to be related to "least value" (you pawn, sell, sacrifice that which is of least value, and you have a lot of).
And then there's "exchanging" (pawning) your pawn for a more valuable piece when the pawn reaches the end of it's journey .
(I'm even more half-assed at word entomology, and stuff like that:)
German has it as "Schachmatt" - the word for chess (Schach) combined with the word for exhausted (matt) and is thus fairly close to the Persian.
I just watched Clue for the millionth time last week. Such a great film.
Great mimes think alike. I was just thinking we need a game words. Et voila! I was thinking board games and sports games. Clearly you are saving sports words for later. Here is my sports word question. Only in the last year have I understood what a scrum is, since we Americans don't use the word. But it sounds like scrimmage. Are they related?
Scrum (in rugby) is actually short for scrummage. Presumably misheard (or simply a variant of scrimmage). As American football is more closely related to rugby than to football, I feel sure it‘s the same word.
@@michaelmedlinger6399 Scrim is a type of semitransparent mesh curtain in stagecraft. Lit from the front the audience sees it as a normal backdrop but backlit reveals action occurring behind the "fronted" reality (usually a surprise). This may actually be closer to what occurs on a football line - orderly in the front, but some positions moving laterally behind for misdirection before the snap, or surprise zig (or zag) at the snap.
Such a joyous channel!! We need this in these troubled times.
My favorite riddle: why is a raven like a writing desk?
“The King can’t even.”
I truly love this. 😂
Thanks so much for this cheerful episode ❤😊
You can trade a pawn in for a queen if you can get it safely to your opponents end of the board, so perhaps that's where the security for a deposit comes in.
Thanks for the wonderful episode! In my family we play double-deck solitaire against each other, sometimes six people playing. It can get pretty crazy with everyone playing all of their aces in the center and playing on each other's cards. We also play a variation on Spades called Back-alley Bridge, in which you increase the number of cards each hand (up to 13 and back down), and the next card determines what suit is trumps, plus the jokers are the two highest trumps. When we were in Germany this summer, we learned a game called As$hole from our German friends, which was quite fun. My favorite game, though, is Boggle, which nobody ever wants to play with me since I am so good. Once I played the word QUADRIGA in the app version and scored over 200 points for it. :)
Where I grew up in Norway tag was called "tikken" and you'd say "tikk" when you caught someone. Interesting to hear there are English versions more similar to that than tag.
Comes of going to school in the old Danelaw regions 😁
In India, knights are called horses, bishops are camels, and rooks are elephants.
I remember being astonished, when I saw the name "Cornhole" for a game in the toy section of stores in the last 20 or so years. I thought; don't the people marketing this game know, that to cornhole someone is to perform an "unnatural" act on them? Maybe somebody was joking around, & called it the naughty slang term "cornhole", when they taught someone the game, but that someone didn't get the joke, then began to market the game as Cornhole in the 21st Century?
I don't remember what this old game was called back in the 20th Century. Was it "Beanbag" or something like that? It certainly wasn't "Cornhole".
I am English and had only heard the term "cornhole" from an American film. So I was a little shocked when Jess mentioned it!!
I like the expression, 'Lady of the Game.' I don't use the 'P' word and usually use, 'Lady of the Night.'. I will start using this phrase as well.
My mom loved pinochle but pronounced it "PEE knuckle", as bad as that sounds.
Uh... let's just say it's *pea* knuckle. It sounds better that way. Even though it sounds the same.
Always so interesting, great fun to learn all these things about where words come from. You two are great to listen to!
Trouble, frustration, ludo, pachisi, aggravation, are all the same gameboard with the same mechanics, very slight variations of rules. I'm sure there are so many more
In german it's called "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" which means "man, don't be upset".
Parcheesi is the spelling of the brand name in the States.
Sorry is the same.
I wish you guys covered euchre in the cards section! Love from Near DT, MI.
There's a Scottish word wheesht, and Scottish Gaelic word ist (pronounced isht), which means be quiet.
In the discussion of chess, as played in Europe, excluding Chinese chess or Shogi in Japan, the rook is a problem. I would like your comments on the Lewis chessmen, from Norway. Their rooks were sometimes called “warders” and portrayed as berserkers, who seem to be biting their shields to hold themselves back from battle. This is another reason for moving in a straight line, like a chariot.
Is pawn not related to peon?
I have fond memories of vacationing (without my 4 brothers) at my Nana’s house where she taught me pinochle. I still have my deck of pinochle cards … it is a different deck of cards than the standard one. Pinochle was very popular here in the US.
In the US, the game which Rob called Frustration is know as Sorry, which in turn is based on a game called Aggravation.Trouble is similar, but not the same. Both Sorry and Trouble had the "popomatic bubble," and were both very parchisi-like games. Aggravation was also similar to parchisi, but without the bubble, and used a wooden board with little holes carved onto the wood, where colored marbles would fit.
Thank you! I was about to look it up to see if I had forgotten my own childhood
Sorry had cards. Up to 12 but missing some numbers such as 9.
@@prman9984and not all the numbers meant just "move X forward"
I think 4 was "move 4 back " and I think one card let you move two different pieces.
With the move back card. I remember interpreting it to let you move back toward the start of the game and skip going around the board
Thanks for one of our favorite channels. My wife and I never miss a show. And also, thanks Jess for the Clue movie suggestion: it was great!
first! love the show
For Wordle, try 'SHARE' or 'SHIRE.' H is in a lot of digraphs and is usually in the 2nd or 5th position, while identifying a silent E can give huge clues to the structure of the word. R is also in many digraphs, S is the most common consonant, and A or I are the second-most-common vowels. I've had outstanding success with these.
While discussing the origins of "Jack" I hoped you would have touched on "Jack of all trades" as a term for everyman. Great video! Keep them coming please!
The origin of pawn was very interesting, and I think makes perfect sense in the context of the game in that the pawns pledge their allegiance to the king and are routinely sacrificed to protect him, much like the connotation of a pledge at a fraternity, in that the pledge swears allegiance to the brotherhood.
Echoing all the calls for Rob to watch Clue. It does a pretty good job of blending British and North American humour.
I play a variant of Wordle called Octordle where you need to get 8 results simultaneously. I typically use RAISE, MOULT, PUNCH/PINCH (punch is generally better to discover if the U is in the 2nd slot if the first two words have shown U is in one of the words) and if necessary, WEDGY. It does leave some gaps because B and F tend to fit the same structures.
Brilliant, enjoy the series - I played Trictrac with my father when I was young, that is a variation of backgammon
About pawn. Around 17:30. In modern Icelandic the word for ordering something, as in order online is the verb “panta”. It can also be used to call dibs on something. As in calling “shotgun” to sit in a front seat or calling “not it” in a game of tag.