dominoes

dominoes game played with a set of rectangular pieces (usually 28 in number) called dominoes. Each piece (made of wood, bone, ivory, plastic, or other material) has one blank face and one face marked with pips, or dots. The marked faces are divided into halves, each half containing (in a 28-piece set) from 0 to 6 pips in every possible combination—0-0, 1-1, 1-0, and so on. The most common version of dominoes is the draw game wherein two to four players pick a specified number of face-down dominoes. The object of the game is to match the number on one domino half to that of the half already played on the table. The first to dispose of all his or her dominoes wins. The game has been traced as far back as 18th cent. Italy where it enjoyed great popularity among the idle courtiers of Venice.

domino
A. cloak with a half-mask worn at masquerades, person wearing this XVIII; the mask itself XIX;

B. rectangular piece used in the game (dominoes) having the under side black and the upper blank or marked with pips XIX. — F. domino, presumably a deriv. of L. dominus (see DOM).