Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary online

æ
þ

tæfl

  • noun [ feminineneuter ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
tæfl, e; f.: es ; n.(?): tæfle, an(?); f.
Wright's OE grammar
§293;
Properly a board for the playing of a game. But the word seems also used of a game played on such a board: cf. the use of the word tables at a later time
Show examples

  • Wyþ pleyynge at tables oþer atte chekere,

    • R. Glouc. 192, 3.

  • Kueade gemenes of des and of tables huer me playþ nor pans,

    • Ayenb. 45, 16.

  • Tabulies

    tabella

    (15th cent.),
    • Wrt. Voc. i. 202, col. 2.

  • See also Strutt's Sports,

    • Bk. iv, c. 2.
The word seems to denote also a die used in playing a game. What was the precise nature of the games, to which this word and related forms are applied, does not appear; some of the references below would imply that games of chance are meant, and this would be in keeping with the love of gaming which Tacitus, Germ. c. 24, noticed among the Germans. But games of skill like chess may sometimes be meant. In Icelandic tafl is used of chess or draughts, as well as of dicing, and the Danes in England seem to have played chess (see
  • Thrupp's Anglo-Saxon Home, c. xvi, sec. 7
);
and in
O. H. Ger. scah-zabel
= scacarium
.
Among the Welsh, too, was a game something like draughts, called tawlbwrdd
Show examples
  • (
    • Thrupp, p. 388
    )

    :-- Tefil, tebl, teblae

    alea,

    • Txts. 36, 6.

  • Tæfl,

    • Wrt. Voc. ii. 8, 7.
    Incipit de alea. Tæfl alea, ic tæfle tæflum

    cotizo tesseris,

    • i. 284, 28, 31.

  • Tæfel,

    • 66, 47.

  • Tæfel alea, cynningstán on tæfle pirgus (cf. O. H. Ger. zabel-bret pirgus), feðerscíte tæfel tessere vel

    lepusculae,

    • 39, 45-49.

  • Tæslum tesellum ( = tæflum

    tessellis?

    v.
    • Wülck. Gl. 526, 5
      • ),
    • ii. 93, 44.

  • Dryhten dǽleþ sumum tæfle cræft, bleóbordes gebregd,

    • Exon. Th. 331, 19;
    • Vy 70.

  • Sum biþ hræd tæfle, sum biþ gewittig æt wínþege,

    • 297, 25;
    • Crä. 73.

  • Hý twegen sceolon tæfle ymbsittan ... habban him gomen on borde,

    • 345, 2;
    • Gn. Ex. 182.
Etymology
[Sum men pleoden on tæuelbrede (mid tauel, 2nd MS.), Laym. 8133.
O. H. Ger. zabel;
n. alea,
wurf-zabel alea, tessera: Icel.
tafl; n. a game; tafla a piece used in a game.] See the following words.
Linked entries
v.  tebl.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “tæfl.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/30125.

Checked: 0
Full form

Word-wheel

  • tæfl, n.

Copyright

All the data provided here are free for any purpose. If you use the data for academic purposes, we ask that you kindly cite us as your source. In case you need a large portion of the dictionary data or you need it in a specific format, let us know through the contact form, we are happy to do custom database dumps for researchers.

How to cite

You can cite the entries of the online version of the dictionary, or you can cite the scanned pages of the original paper editions.

  • To cite the online version of the dictionary, click the icon right under the entry.
  • To cite the scanned paper version of the dictionary, click the "show/hide this scanned page" link under the entry, check the scan and use the citation information right above it.