GAME ON!

Did You Know That Scrabble Was Originally Called "Lexico"?

Image: Christopher Paul High

Board games have been entertaining families and friends for centuries - perhaps even millennia - but behind every game lies a fascinating story.

From the strategic depths of chess to the whimsical world of Candy Land, join us to learn how each of these 10 timeless games was made.

Image: Joshua Hoehne

Surprisingly, Monopoly was originally known as "The Landlord's Game," and was invented by American anti-monopolist Elizabeth Magie in 1903 to easily illustrate the negative aspects of land concentration and private monopolies. It aimed to promote the ideas of Georgism, an economic philosophy advocating for the taxation of land to counteract social injustice.

Image: Carlos Esteves

Dating back to the 7th century, chess originated in India as "chatrang," and soon became popular in the region. In fact, the word "checkmate" originated from the Persian shāh māt, meaning "the king is dead." As the game spread throughout the world, it evolved into the strategic masterpiece we know today.

Image: Alexander Lyashkov

Also known as Cluedo, this murder mystery game was created by Anthony E. Pratt during World War II. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk, designed the game as a form of entertainment during air raid blackouts. Its original setting was a country house, but the successive versions of the game have introduced new locations, characters, and weapons.

Image: Freysteinn G. Jonsson

Alfred Butts, an unemployed architect during the Great Depression, developed Scrabble in 1938. Originally named "Lexiko" and later "Criss-Cross Words," Butts combined the concept of anagrams and crossword puzzles to create a game that tested vocabulary and strategy. Soon, Scrabble became so popular that many TV networks began to make their own game shows based on the game’s rules, and today there is even a Scrabble World Championship.

Image: omid roshan

Risk, conceived by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse, emerged from the early 1950s. The gameplay simulates global domination through strategic conquests of different regions of the six continents. Originally titled "The Conquest of the World", the game reflected the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War era, and its mixture of simple rules and complex decision-making made it immensely popular among both adults and children at the time.

Image: Alexander Grey

Candy Land is sometimes dismissed as an overly simple game, but that’s exactly the point. Eleanor Abbott, a polio patient in the 1940s, invented Candy Land as a distraction for children recovering from the harsh illness. The vibrant board and simple gameplay provided a colorful journey through a world of sweets, offering joy and imagination during difficult times. She partnered with American board game mogul Milton Bradley to manufacture it, and it soon became the most popular game among children in the whole country.

Image: Aksel Fristrup

Designed by Klaus Teuber in 1995, Settlers of Catan revolutionized the world of board gaming. Teuber, a dental technician from Germany, created the game to provide an engaging activity for his family, inspired by the history of Viking settlers in Iceland and Norway. Its innovative mechanics and strategic depth propelled it to international acclaim, and it became a staple for board game enthusiasts worldwide.

Image: JIP, CC BY-SA 4.0

Scott Abbott and Chris Haney, two Canadian journalists, conceived Trivial Pursuit in 1979 after becoming frustrated while failing to find all the pieces for their Scrabble game. Aiming to recreate the experience of a pub quiz, the duo combined trivia from various categories into a competitive board game where players raced each other to the finish line.

Image: U.S. Navy, Public Domain

Thought to have been inspired by the French wargame "L'Attaque," Battleship began as a simple pencil and paper game, eventually being manufactured with plastic boards and pegs by Milton Bradley in 1967. Countless adaptations of the game have been made, introducing slightly different rules, but retaining the core concept of tactical warfare on the open seas.

Image: Jono Winn from San Diego, USA, CC BY 2.0

While Twister is not exactly a traditional board game and more of a physical skill one, where players have to place their hands and feet in specific colored spots on a plastic mat, it deserves a spot among the classics. The popular game was created by board game designers Charles Foley and Neil Rabens in 1966, who wanted to make a game that tested players’ physical agility and balance. They eventually presented the idea to the Milton Bradley Company, who enthusiastically embraced the concept, propelling it into worldwide popularity.

Time is of the essence

Are words getting shorter? Take a look a these 12 everyday examples!

Image: Markus Winkler

Blame it on the faster pace of modern life, practicality, or whatever else you can think of, but the tendency to optimize time has seeped into our everyday lives and even into our language. Many formal words have been trimmed into shorter versions of themselves, often starting as slang and then becoming standard speech. Did you ever use any of the following words in their longer form?

Image: Jonathan Borba

In the nineteenth century, public coaches were called omnibuses, a Latin term suggesting transport "for all." Passengers soon favored the shorter, quicker "bus" in daily talk.

The shortened word spread rapidly across cities and timetables. Today, omnibus survives mainly in legal texts or historical descriptions.

Image: CDC

During early epidemics, newspapers shortened influenza to "flu" for speed and space, helping the clipped form spread rapidly.

Today, flu is the everyday name for the illness, while influenza persists in medical and scientific writing. Both remain correct, but only one feels familiar.

Image: Kristen Plastique

The French-derived brassiere was common in early 20th-century catalogs, but shoppers quickly favored the brisk, modern "bra."

After mid-century marketing shifts, the clipped form became universal. Today, brassiere sounds dated outside historical writing.

Image: Ann Ann

We might think otherwise today, but a facsimile transmission was once cutting-edge technology. Soon enough, office workers favored the short, punchy "fax."

As machines spread, the clipped form took over press releases and everyday conversation alike. The original term is now largely historical.

Image: Daniel Guerra

Early films were described as moving pictures, but audiences soon began calling them "movies" because, well, it was shorter and catchier.

Hollywood’s rise helped seal the popularity of the shorter form. Today, the longer phrase survives mainly in historical analysis or nostalgic usage.

Image: Waldemar Brandt

Passengers on city streets once hired a taximeter cab, later shortened to taxicab, but everyday speech eventually clipped it to the more convenient and expeditious "taxi."

The shorter word spread globally, becoming the universal name for hired cars. The long form persists mainly in regulations.

Image: Kenny Eliason

Originally coined as weblog, a portmanteau of web and log, the term was later jokingly split as we blog, inspiring the now-standard "blog."

The clipped form quickly overtook its parent. Today, it refers both to the site and to the act of publishing online posts.

Image: Eugene Chystiakov

Retailers once promoted hooded sweatshirts, but youth culture shortened the name to "hoodie," giving it a modern identity.

The clipped form became mainstream across fashion and sportswear. The longer phrase now appears mainly in catalogs or formal product descriptions.

Image: Manny Becerra

The elegant Italian word violoncello entered English intact before musicians clipped it to the smoother, more practical "cello."

The shortened form became the everyday name of the instrument. The longer term survives mostly in formal scores, academic contexts, and archival writing.

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The original pianoforte highlighted the instrument’s ability to play softly and loudly, but speakers quickly favored the simpler and more universal "piano."

As the instrument spread through homes and concert halls, the shorter term dominated. Pianoforte remains in scholarly texts and classical sheet music.

Image: Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu

The Latin-derived word dormitory described shared student housing, but campus life quickly adopted the brisker, more casual "dorm."

The clipped form feels friendly and familiar, reflecting college culture. The full term appears mainly in brochures and official policies.

Image: BBiDDac

In the nineteenth century, men wore pantaloons, a somewhat funny term that later evolved into "pants" as fashion and language changed.

The shorter form became the everyday American generic term for trousers. Pantaloons now survives almost exclusively in costume history, literature, and theater.