From a games site: dialect clash

[Benjamin Barrett]

BTW, the OED has only one citation for "go-moku" and "five in a row" but no entry. It does have an entry for "gobang," which is the same thing, though the OED claims it is played on a chequer-board. I first learned the game in high school and played on a piece of paper as described on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomoku).

The etymology also says it's from Chinese k'i pan, chess-board, but surely "go board" is a better description of the board since "(Chinese) chess" more accurately refers to xiangqi, and go is now a well known game mentioned in fiction and non-fiction alike.

The earliest I see "gomoku narabe" and "five in a row" on Google Books is 1902: http://ow.ly/lARme.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On May 31, 2013, at 12:07 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> I vaguely remember this game. I didn't care for it too much. Wikipedia =
> has an article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_Four
> 
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
> 
> On May 31, 2013, at 12:02 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> =20
>> =20
>> "=3DE2=3D80=3DA6 a new game, called "Dots," that is very similar to =
> the board gam=3D
>> e,
>> "Connect Four," that you might have played as a kid."
>> =20
>> The game that *I* played as a kid was called "dots." This the first =
> that
>> I've heard of any game called "connect four." But  the point of dots =
> was to
>> connect four dots so as to make a square.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org