That’s a contradiction. If you’re a believing Christian, then you’re religious.
… what?
In one game I heard about from a friend, the planchette spelled out “HP Lovecraft.” One of the players was a huge fan and kept pleading “I swear to God I didn’t do it” when confronted. The more times somebody invokes “I swear to God,” the more times he lies.
Yeah, there’s no great mystery behind the great mystery of the Ouija board. It was specifically marketed from the beginning as a way to talk to spirits. Also, movies like ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘Witchboard’ helped boost / maintain its rep and popularity.
Fun fact: the name ‘Ouija’ comes from combining the words ‘oui’ and ‘ja’-- the French and German words for ‘yes’.
Not a creepy Ouija board story, but interesting. There’s a Ouija Board Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (where else?). It’s located in the back of the Harry Potter store there.(which also carries Hocus Pocus stuff and things from other Pop Culture sources). The guy really does have an incredible collection, and is well-versed in the history. There’s an online “Ouija Board Museum” , but this guy seems to have more stuff.
Interesting thing – the Board and the Planchette were originally separate items. The first “talking boards” used different ways to get the message across, nd planchettes originally worked by themselves. Putting them together seems an obvious step in retrospect, but somebody had to think of it first.
According to Wikipedia, that’s an urban legend, although I’m not sure I believe what it presents as the actual origin of the name.
The popular belief that the word Ouija comes from the French and German words for yes is a misconception. In fact, the name was given from a word spelled out on the board when medium Helen Peters Nosworthy asked the board to name itself. When asked what the word meant, it responded “Good Luck.”
@discobot fortune
As I see it, yes
So…oui? Ja!
Exactly.
Come back when they market the version where a plain wood planchette moves around on its own and answers questions. Then I’m interested.
Huh, my ignorance of that misunderstanding has been fought. Thank you.
The magic 8 ball has 20 possible answers. There is an icosohedron ( a 20 sided die or D20 to us gamers) inside. If you break the clear plastic open (much harder to do than depicted on television), you are left with a white D20 with words (and one elipsis . . .) on the faces.
I’ve seen ancient Roman icosohedrons with a single symbol on each face. The oracle rolled the D20, then checked the page in the manual marked with that symbol. The Roman D20’s are clear so they could not be loaded. I’ve read in other places of fortune telling dice that were loaded.
ETA
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones includes the story of a general saying ‘If this coin comes up heads, we know that we will be victorious!’. The coin comes up heads. His second in command says, privately, ‘you must really trust in destiny’. The general says ‘yes I do’ and shows that the coin has heads on both sides.
Well, the etymological dictionary etymonline backs you up, and it pretty much agrees with whatever the OED has (or at least I treat it as the free version of the OED):
Usually, if the etymology is suspect, it will note it was a hedge word like purportedly or something similar.
So one or the other needs to updated. Anyone have access to an OED and can check what’s in there, if there is an entry?
The source appear to be this news piece from 2018, so I suppose it’s possible this etymology hasn’t been vetted yet, or etymonline (and possibly OED) doesn’t even know of the story.
That said, it was always a little odd to me that the board would be named after two European language words for “Yes”. I would think yes/no would be a better name for the board, but “OUINEIN” or “JANON” doesn’t quite look as nice as “OUIJA”.
My sister and I tried using a board, once. Being young and literal (and possibly not reading the instructions), we waited for the planchet to move. It didn’t.
I have an OED subscription. The etymology section of the Ouija entry says “Origin uncertain” and has a note:
The word has been variously explained as (a) < French oui oui adv. + German ja yes (see yea adv.), (b) < an ancient Egyptian word for ‘good luck’ (although apparently no such word exists), and (c) < the name of Oujda, the name of a city in Morocco.
The original auto fill-in.
Aargh! We will not be free of autocarrot, even in the next world!
And now for our musical guest!
There’s also the story (I think it’s Roman but am not sure) about the general who consulted an oracle. The oracle predicted a great victory. The general neglected to ask whether it would be his army or his opponents who would be victorious.
The general in your story has more sense.
Don’t be silly. Birds aren’t real.
Magic tricks commonly involve making someone see something that isn’t there…and vice versa. A hallucination, if you will. But no one really believes in them