Shooting Craps

I've never been a big fan of dice games, gambling, stuff like that. A small fan maybe, but not a big fan. I prefer card games like bridge or board games like chess, and occasionally I obsess over various computer-based games. I was there when Warcraft first came out.

But recently, some friends of mine (like Khaos and the Wiccan Wonder — which makes it sound like some superhero team-up) got me thinking about one particular probability phenomenon: the sweepstakes or raffle. I started wondering about the etymology. So I looked here and read the following:

c.1386, from O.Fr. rafle "dice game," also "plundering," perhaps from a Gmc. source (cf. M.Du. raffel "dice game," O.Fris. hreppa "to move," O.N. hreppa "to reach, get," Ger. raffen "to snatch away, sweep off"), from P.Gmc. *khrap- "to pluck out, snatch off." The notion would be "to sweep up (the stakes), to snatch (the winnings)." Dietz connects the O.Fr. word with the Gmc. root, but OED is against this. Meaning "sale of chances" first recorded 1766.

It's an interesting little piece of research there, something to while away a lazy Thursday night and wake you up on Friday morning feeling cheerful and full of energy...