nine men's morris

English

Etymology

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”).

Noun

nine men's morris (uncountable)

1. 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.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 149:

     The nine mens Morris is fild vp with mud, / And the queint Mazes in the wanton greene,

Related terms

• twelve men's morris

Translations

board game

• Basque: errota-joko
• Catalan: marro de nou m
• Finnish: mylly (fi)
• German: Mühle (de) f
• Hungarian: malom (hu)
• Icelandic: mylla f
• Italian: filetto (it) m, mulino (it) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mølle (no) f

  Nynorsk: mølle f

• Polish: młynek (pl) m
• Romanian: țintar (ro) n, moară (ro) f
• Swedish: kvarn (sv), kvarnspel (sv)
• Turkish: dokuztaş (tr)

Further reading

• nine men's morris on Wikipedia.Wikipedia