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 rotation, spun on its vertical Axis of rotation, axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect.
Once set in motion, a top will ...
most commonly used for
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...
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.
The teetotum has variants such as the pirinola, used in Latin America, and the
dreidel
A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, ( ; , plural: ''dreydlech''; ) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in Europe and Latin America ...
, used in Jewish communities during the holiday of
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
.
Description

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 the
dreidel
A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, ( ; , plural: ''dreydlech''; ) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in Europe and Latin America ...
, a Jewish toy played with during
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
. The dreidel typically has four sides: N (
) for nothing; G (
) for take all; H (
) for take half, and S (
) or P (
) for put one in. These letters form an acronym, in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, which recalls the miracle for which the holy day is celebrated; and, in
Yiddish
Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
, which explains the rules of the game.
The perinola is a typically six-sided variant of the teetotum used in Latin America.
See also
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References
Sources
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External links
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Gaming devices
Spinning tops