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Teetotums and spinning dice

4 replies, 2 voices Last updated by Ömer Fatih Parlak 5 years, 4 months ago
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    • #37057

      Jonas Richter
      Participant
      @jonasjrichter

      My impression is that the word “(tee)totum” initially will have referred to a randomizer for a put & take game, taking its name from one of outcomes of a die roll/ spin: totum = (take the) whole. The word seems to have taken on the more general meaning of a spinning die, regardless of whether its side show letters for put & take or numbers or pips. Would others agree?

    • #37058

      Jonas Richter
      Participant
      @jonasjrichter

      Okay, couldn’t stop myself from “digging” around a bit online. I’m trying to get a better undertanding of historical spinning dice (with pips/ numbers on its faces as well as dice with letters, for put & take).

      Here’s an archaeological paper mentioning a spinning die (Kreiselwürfel) found in a cesspit in Höxter (North Rhine-Westphalia). The cesspit is dated to the 14th to 1st half of the 15th cent. The die is made from bone, a hexagonal prism with a spindle, its faces showing 1-6 pips. König, the author of the paper, writes:

      Der Fund stellt einen frühen Beleg dieser seit dem 16. Jahrhundert beliebten Spielwürfelvariante dar. (The object is an early example of this dice variant which was popular since the 16th century. – transl. JR)

      Andreas König: Hinterhöfe der Macht – Ausgrabungen am romanischen Brückenmarkt in Höxter. ARCHÄOLOGIE IN WESTFALEN-LIPPE 2017 (2018), 90-94, here p. 92 (quote) and 93 (image). DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/aiw.0.0.68917

      And I guess it’s helpful to also post this to the mailing list. I will do that later.

    • #37501

      Ömer Fatih Parlak
      Participant
      @fatih

      That’s a very plausible assumption. Could TEE mean the letter T on the totum to designate “take”?

    • #37526

      Jonas Richter
      Participant
      @jonasjrichter

      Yes, the usual assumption is that the word “teetotum” or other early forms “tetotum” & “T totum” derive from the letter T shown on one of the spinning die’s faces being put in front of “totum”. The T would originally have been for “totum” (the whole). A quote by Strutt in 1801 demonstrates that letters on the dice/spinners represented English words by then. Dice marked with either T or P with a number (P1 = pay one, T2 = take two, etc.) are a younger development I think. Anyway, I don’t think we can be sure what people assumed the T to mean when the word “totum” was prefixed with it.

      That would make it a rather pleonastic word. It also creates a distinct sound aesthetic; probably a good thing for a toy.

      The oldest reference with the T-prefix, given by the OED, is this:

      1720   Hist. Life & Adventures D. Campbell (1841) 50   A very fine ivory T totum, as children call it.

      “teetotum, n.1.” OED Online, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/198596.

      Further 18th century references (not found in the OED):

      • 1750 in “The Old Lady in Her Tantarums”, p. 10: …playing thus at T. Totum, Leap Frog, and Laugh and lye down…
      • 1768 in various texts presumably all relating the same story, “The Trial of Frederick Calvert, Esq; Baron of Baltimore … for a Rape…”, p. 11; in the Tyburn Chronicle, p. 240; in “The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure”, p. 202; “The Scots Magazine” p. 202: …play at tetotum…
      • 1770 in the notes to “Ancient Scottish Poems”, p. 301 and 316

      It may be worth pointing out that in the 1830s advocates for total abstinence from intoxicating beverages coined words like “teetotal”, “teetotalism”, apparently to emphasize how very much totally abstinent from alcohol you should be. Late in the 19th century, “teetotum” could also mean a “teetotal” or temperance restaurant.

      • This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Jonas Richter.
    • #37528

      Ömer Fatih Parlak
      Participant
      @fatih

      Amazing. Thanks for digging all this information. Very insightful.

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