Teetotum

[2] The teetotum has variants such as the pirinola, used in Latin America, and the dreidel, used in Jewish communities during the holiday of Hanukkah.

In its earliest form, the body was square (in some cases via a stick through a regular six-sided die[3]), marked on the four sides by the letters A (Lat.

[4] 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:[4] 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.

These letters form an acronym, in Hebrew, which recalls the miracle for which the holy day is celebrated; and, in Yiddish, which explains the rules of the game.