[Fwd: Re: Cut Bait; Die is Cast]

[A. Maberry]

On Mon, 29 May 2000, Mike Salovesh wrote:

> die; when the player let go of the die, the cry "the die is cast" was an
> announcement that betting was closed and bets already placed were
> binding.  (Wait a minute -- my Latin deserted me just when I needed it
> most.  What the heck was it -- "acta jalea est"?  No, that doesn't feel
> right . . . "jacta alea est"?  At least it's in the singular, as I would
> expect from "the die is cast".)

Actually alea is defined as "I. a game with dice, and in gen. a game of
hazard or chance ... II. Transf. any thing uncertain or contingent, an
accident, chance, hazard, venture, risk."
The Latin words for the dice themseves are tessera (pl. tesserae) and
talus (pl. tali).

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu