Etymology

backgammon

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Today it means: A board game for two players in which each has 15 stones which move between 24 triangular points according to the roll of a pair of dice; the object is to move all of one's pieces around, and bear them off the board. Full definition →

Middle English gamen ← Old English gamen
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The story

  1. Old English · derived fromgamen“amusement, game”
  2. Middle English · derived fromgamen
  3. English todaybackgammon

Probably from back + Middle English gamen, from Old English gamen (“amusement, game”).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishgamen all →

gamegammetgammock

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.