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Topic: National Dice Day

Today is National Dice Day, and we are on a roll, since the two small cubes, each marked with between one and six dots, have been shaken and thrown by gamblers from ancient India to ancient Rome to ancient Greece and show no signs of coming to rest any time soon.

We'd lay even odds that even folks who would rather die than wager are familiar with the debate over whether a single cube is properly called a die or a dice. Both terms date back to 14th century English, and although plenty of people might use dice as a singular in speech, print editors continue to reinforce the standard that one cube is a die and two or more are dice.

Then there's the phrase no dice. As you might expect, no dice means "of no avail; no use; futile;" or simply "no" . . . as in, no dice on the idea that the die is cast is associated with molten metal being shaped or molded. In fact, fatalists and history lovers alike know the die is cast originated as the supposed announcement with which Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in the year forty-nine B.C. Its meaning, then and now, suggests that the dice have been thrown and that nothing can be changed as players await the outcome of the roll.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

twisted