How a game of dice played by Crusaders gave us chance, risk and danger. Tap ▶ to hear each step read aloud.
The first dice were knucklebones: the small ankle bones of sheep and goats. People threw them thousands of years ago to play and to ask the gods about the future.
The word probably comes from Arabic az-zahr, the die (one of the dice). European knights on the Crusades learned dice games in the Middle East.
An old story says the game was named after a castle called Hasart, where it was invented, but most scholars prefer the Arabic word.
In Old French, hasard was the name of a game of dice. It was a popular gambling game in taverns, and English writers like Chaucer mention it.
Dice are pure luck, so hasard came to mean chance. French still uses it this way: par hasard, by chance.
In older English, at hazard
meant at risk, left to luck.
Bad luck can hurt, so in English hazard came to mean a danger.
Examples: a health hazard
, hazard lights
on a car, hazardous waste
, the sand and water hazards
on a golf course.
| hazardous | dangerous |
| haphazard | by chance, without a plan |
| hazard lights | warning lights on a car |
French kept the lucky meaning, le hasard (chance). English kept the unlucky one, hazard (danger). For danger, French says danger or risque.
“Throw the dice: chance in French, danger in English.”