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A teetotum (or T-totum) is a form of gambling spinning top that is known across Europe from Roman times. It has a polygonal body - originally four-sided - marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. The name originates from Latin Totum meaning 'all' which was marked by a T on one of the four sides and indicated that the winning player could take all the played tokens. 'TeeToTum' (Tee To Tum) was the name of a sports ground in Stamford Hill, London in the 19th century. The ''Hackney TeeToTum'' cricket team played there, and it also hosted athletics events such as the professional '25 Mile World Championships'. ==Description== In its earliest form the body was square (in some cases via a stick through a regular six-sided die 〔(Teetotum at A.Word.A.Day )〕), 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. Other combinations of letters 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.〔(Make it a Pleasure and Not a Task )〕 The toy is mentioned in Lewis Carroll's ''Through the Looking-Glass'', when the Sheep asks "Are you a child or a Teetotum?" The teetotum survives today as dreidel, a Jewish game played on Hanukkah 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 games in place of dice. The original 1860 version of The Game of Life used a teetotum in order to avoid the die's association with gambling. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「teetotum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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