The ensuing week went by with a buzz and whirl, circling about Theron Ware's dizzy consciousness like some huge, impalpable teetotum sent spinning under Sister Soulsby's resolute hands.
- Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware, ch. 14
From a quick check, no apparent relationship to teetotal, apart from formal similarity. Hopefully we'll never need an adjective meaning 'of or pertaining to a teetotum'.
A teetotum is a form of gambling top. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. 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.
Some 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, SZ, TA, TG, NH, ND, M.
Which stood for (In Latin):
ZS - Zona Salve, save all
TA - Tibi Adfer, take all
NH - Nihil Habeas, nothing left
LS - L (i.e., 50) Solve, save 50
ND - Nihil Dabis, nothing happens
Teetotum survives today as dreidel, a Jewish game played on Hanukkah. _Wikipedia
The ensuing week went by with a buzz and whirl, circling about Theron Ware's dizzy consciousness like some huge, impalpable teetotum sent spinning under Sister Soulsby's resolute hands.
- Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware, ch. 14
From a quick check, no apparent relationship to teetotal, apart from formal similarity. Hopefully we'll never need an adjective meaning 'of or pertaining to a teetotum'.
A teetotum is a form of gambling top. It has a polygonal body marked with letters or numbers, which indicate the result of each spin. 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.
Some 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, SZ, TA, TG, NH, ND, M.
Which stood for (In Latin):
ZS - Zona Salve, save all
TA - Tibi Adfer, take all
NH - Nihil Habeas, nothing left
LS - L (i.e., 50) Solve, save 50
ND - Nihil Dabis, nothing happens
Teetotum survives today as dreidel, a Jewish game played on Hanukkah.
_Wikipedia