![Chinese Teetotum 1893](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Chinese_Teetotum_1893.png)
A teetotum (or T-totum) is a form of
spinning top
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.
Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few se ...
most commonly used for
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
games. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin.
Usage goes back to (at least) ancient Greeks and Romans, with the popular "put and take" gambling version going back to medieval times.
Description
![Teetotum Bruegel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Teetotum_Bruegel.gif)
In its earliest form the body was square (in some cases via a stick through a regular six-sided die), 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.
Other accounts give such letters as P, N, D (''dimidium'', half), and H or T or other combinations of letters. 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:
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.
The teetotum was later adapted into
dreidel, a Jewish game played at
Hanukkah
or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem)
, nickname =
, observedby = Jews
, begins = 25 Kislev
, ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet
, celebrations = Lighting candles each night. ...
, and as the
Perinola, a game played in many Latin American countries. Some modern teetotums have six or eight sides, and are used in commercial
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a comp ...
s in place of
dice
Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
. The original 1860 version of
The Game of Life
''The Game of Life'', also known simply as ''Life'', is a board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, rol ...
used a teetotum in order to avoid the die's association with gambling.
In literature
A teetotum is mentioned by "
Martinus Scriblerus",
the pen name of a club of 18th-century satirical writers.
In
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Little Men'' (1871) and ''Jo's Boys'' (1886). Raised in ...
's ''
Rose in Bloom
''Rose in Bloom'' is a novel by Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Lit ...
'', a character learning to dance says, "A fellow must have some reward for making a teetotum of himself."
The 19th-century English poet
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley (23 August 184911 July 1903) was an English poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the o ...
wrote the ''Double Ballade on the Nothingness of Things'' which opened with the lines:
In
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
's fantasy ''
Through the Looking-Glass
''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...
'',
Alice's movements about
the Old Sheep Shop provoke its proprietor (the
White Queen transformed into a sheep) to ask, "Are you a child, or a teetotum?"
In Dickens' ''
Our Mutual Friend'' a line of strange-looking wooden objects sticking out of the river near the Plashwater Weir Mill Lock is described as being "like huge teetotums standing at rest in the water". (Book IV, chapter 1)
In
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
's 1845
dark comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
''
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether'', one of the patients of the asylum is described as believing he had been converted into a "tee-totum":
"The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether" on poestories.com
/ref>
"And then," said the friend who had whispered, "there was Boullard, the tee-totum. I call him the tee-totum because, in fact, he was seized with the droll but not altogether irrational crotchet, that he had been converted into a tee-totum. You would have roared with laughter to see him spin. He would turn round upon one heel by the hour, in this manner – so-
Here the friend whom he had just interrupted by a whisper, performed an exactly similar office for himself.
Put and take
In the United Kingdom, the same game with a six-sided die is called "put and take", the sides of the die are- "Put one", "Take one", "Put two", "Take two", "All put" (every player puts in) and "Take all". This is usually played for small stakes (e.g. "one" is one British penny) as amusement rather than to win money.
See also
* Long dice
Long dice (sometimes oblongFinkel 2004, p 39. or stick dice) are dice, often roughly right prisms or (in the case of barrel dice) antiprisms, designed to land on any of several marked lateral faces, but neither end. Landing on end may be rendered ...
(esp. "Lang Larence")
References
Sources
*
External links
*
*
*
{{Refend
Gaming devices
Tops