cockal
English edit
Etymology edit
Uncertain.
Noun edit
cockal (countable and uncountable, plural cockals)
- (obsolete, uncountable, games) A game played with sheep bones instead of dice.
- (obsolete, countable) The bone used in playing the game; a huckle bone.
- 1648, Robert Herrick, “Idyllica”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC; republished as Henry G. Clarke, editor, Hesperides, or Works both Human and Divine, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: H. G. Clarke and Co., […], 1844, →OCLC:
- A little transverse bone / Which boys and bruckelled children call / (Playing for points and pins) cockal.
References edit
- “cockal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.