[Ads-l] cat and mouse, spite and malice, crapette

[Barretts Mail]

I recall my mom teaching us this game in the early 1970s. She called it “mouse.” (FWIW, my sister made a variation where you go as fast as you can instead of taking turns, speed mouse, which we kids found much more fun). 

Lyssie Ahern (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eixDkg_q5ug <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eixDkg_q5ug>) says she remembers playing it with her great-grandparents. 

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spite_and_Malice <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spite_and_Malice>) says it comes from a European game called “crapette,” and gives 1901 as the date for a commercial variation of the game called Flinch. 

None of these card game names are in the OED, Merriam-Webster or Wiktionary, even though the OED and Wiktionary include the solitaire definition for “Klondike.”

Card game rule pages with entries:
https://www.pagat.com/patience/spitemal.html <https://www.pagat.com/patience/spitemal.html>
http://www.thehouseofcards.com/games/spite-malice.html <http://www.thehouseofcards.com/games/spite-malice.html>

Benjamin Barrett (he/him/his)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org