Etymology

nine men's morris

Today it means: An ancient strategic board game for two players, each having nine pieces, and in which forming a row of three of one's own pieces earns the removal of one of the other player's pieces. Full definition →

Latin merellus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived frommerellus“gamepiece (incl. in draughts), token, etc.”
  2. English todaynine men's morris

Popularly claimed to ultimately be from Latin merellus (“gamepiece (incl. in draughts), token, etc.”); a possible connection has also been linked to French marelle (“hopscotch”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.