[Gutenberg 48223] • The History of Gambling in England

Excerpt from The History of Gambling in England

Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen meaning joy pleasure sports or gaming - and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble - to play extravagantly for money and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later - as we see in Cotton's Compleat Gamester (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word: "Gaming is an enchanting witchery gotten between Idleness and Avarice: an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a Tarantula are laughing themselves to death; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow.