Keno

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A casino game of chance in which players mark numbers on a card that match those drawn at random from a numbered pool
2. A lottery-style wagering game where numbers are selected randomly and players win by matching their chosen figures
3. A gambling pastime resembling bingo, in which randomly drawn numbers determine which players' wagers on their chosen figures pay out

Etymology: Keno began as a lottery term in France, not as a game name. The French word "quine" referred to a set of five winning numbers in the lottery, and the word is the source of the American gambling game's name. The number five is the heart of the story: a quine was the grouping that a lottery player hoped to see drawn, so the word named a specific winning combination before it named the whole game. The game itself took the French term and carried it into English-speaking gambling halls, where it became the name for a game of matching numbers chosen by the player against those drawn at random. The shift from a particular five-number win to an entire game of chance is a neat example of a term narrowing and then broadening in use, with the specific winning result becoming the label for the whole activity.

Synonyms: bingo, lotto