craps

Etymology

It is borrowed from French craps (“the game of hazard”), as the word was used in Louisiana,^[2][3][4][5] a variant of crabs,^[5][6] from the English word crabs, the lowest throw at hazard, two aces.^[2][5][7][6] The OED calls the word of obscure origin but compares crabs,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford takes it as apparently an alteration of crabs.^[9] Most dictionaries take crabs as the plural of crab, the shellfish;^[2][6][5] Etymonline suggests the crab of crab apple,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary allows either.^[4] Wilton notes that the pips of the two aces were said to look like crabs or crab apples, and that crabs is found from 9 January 1768, in a letter from the Earl of Carlisle to George Selwyn.^[10] The Oxford Dictionary of English also suggests crab's eyes.^[11] It has nothing to do with crap, excrement.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A game of chance played with dice: 1843, in J. H. Green's An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling, which calls it "a game lately introduced into New Orleans".^[8][3][10] Merriam-Webster gives 1842,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford the early 19th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The modern game descends from hazard, an older dice game,^[2][10] and Wilton credits the New Orleans gambler Bernard de Marigny with bringing it back from England and changing its rules; he also cites an 1845 newspaper report of a man arrested in New Orleans for keeping a banking game called craps.^[10] The phrase to shoot craps is recorded by 1885.^[3] From 1890 the word, also in the form crap, meant a losing throw of 2, 3 or 12.^[8][9] In American slang craps was also used for the dice themselves, from 1926.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1843 – a game of chance played with dice.^[8][3][2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1842.^[5]
• 1885 – to shoot craps, to play the game.^[3]
• 1890 – a losing throw of 2, 3 or 12.^[8]
• 1926 – (slang) dice.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gambling game played with two dice: They shot craps behind the barracks every payday.^[5][14][8]
2. A losing throw of 2, 3 or 12 in this game; crap.^[5][8][9]

Related words

• crab
• hazard
• crapshoot

Usage notes

Cassell and Hendrickson repeat a story that the name comes from the nickname Johnny Crapaud of the gambler Bernard Marigny, through "Crapaud's game";^[15][16] Wilton thinks a link with crapaud, a French word for toad used as a slur on French people, less likely than the variation of crabs, but not impossible.^[10] In American slang the craps has also meant diarrhoea, from crap.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "Craps", 30 July 2020
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Cassell's Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, London: Cassell
16. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File