teetotum

teetotum, form of top having usually 4, 6, 8, or 12 sides marked with distinctive symbols. A teetotum is used for playing games, mostly of the gambling variety, and serves in place of dice. The hexagonal (six-sided) teetotum was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. A common gambling game with a teetotum played since medieval times is put and take, in which the various sides have symbols instructing the players to either put money in the pot or take from the pot. A four-sided form of teetotum is the dreidel, which is marked with the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hey, and shin and is used by Jewish children to play a game during Hanukkah; small coins, nuts, raisins, or pieces of chocolate are used as tokens or chips. The letters form the initials of the message “Nes gadol hayah sham” (“A great miracle happened there”). According to the Talmud, this miracle occurred when the Maccabees recaptured the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 bce. Despite a very small supply of oil, the lamps are said to have continued burning for eight days until new supplies arrived.