History
"The origins of Hangman are obscure, but it seems to have arisen in Victorian times," says Tony Augarde, author of "The Oxford Guide to Word Games" (Oxford University Press). The game is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme's "Traditional Games" in 1894 under the name "Birds, Beasts and Fishes." The rules are simple; a player writes down the first and last letters of a word for an animal, and the other player guesses the letters in between. In other sources the game is called "Gallows", "The Game of Hangin'", or "Hanger". Hangman has featured in the 1978 Speak & Spell video game system under the name "Mystery Word" and is sometimes played today as a forum game.
Read more about this topic: Hangman (game)
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