A BIT OF HISTORY!
As simple as this game may appear, when playing the naughts and crosses, this version goes as far back as ancient Egypt.
ON TILES.
These kinds of board games were found on roofing tiles or slates.
ROMAN EMPIRE.
From around 1300 BC and a very early variation of this game, Tik-Tac-Toe was played in the Roman empire.
They played with 3 pebbles and each player had to move them around. These markings have been found etched all over Rome.
THE NAME CAME FROM?
The Roman version was known as Terni Lapilli or 3 pebbles at a time.
MOVING ON.
Then in Britain in the mid-1800 it was named naughts and crosses, and the name Tic-Tac-Toe came about later on in the 1800s.
It was in the 20th century in the United States that this game was formally named Tic-Tac-Toe.
WHY THIS NAME?
Historians believed that the player would throw a pencil at a slate covered in numbers, then accumulate a score according to the numbers the pencil would hit.
NOISE ON SLATE!
This was a bit like playing darts, thus the name came about from the noise the pencil made as it hit the slate.
WHY TOE?
As for the toe part in the name, well having dug deep to see what relevance this has from my understanding it’s this. To compete or fight with someone in a strong, forceful determined way. (from the Cambridge Dictionary)
CAT AND SCRATCH?
A tie in Tic-Tac-Toe is called a ‘scratch’ like a ‘cat’s scratch’ a bit like playing with a cat, so when both players are at a stalemate, having no winners, the cat usually signals it’s finished with a quick scratch. (Probably the kind of language they used back in the day!)