Dictionary Definition
bagatelle
Noun
1 a light piece of music for piano
3 a table game in which short cues are used to
knock balls into holes that are guarded by wooden pegs; penalties
are incurred if the pegs are knocked over [syn: bar
billiards]
User Contributed Dictionary
see Bagatelle
English
Pronunciation
- /ˌbægəˈtɛl/, /%b
Extensive Definition
Bagatelle (from the Château
de Bagatelle) is an indoor table game related to billiards, the object of which
is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the nineteenth century)
past pins (which act as obstacles) into holes. It probably
developed from the table made with raised sides for trou madame,
which was also played with ivory balls (Gloag 1969 illustrates a
London design that was current in 1782) and continued popular into
the later nineteenth century. Bagatelle is a precursor of the
pinball machine (which
is also descended from pachinko), and laterally
related to miniature
golf.
The game bagatelle evolved
from efforts to bring outdoor games, such as croquet and shuffleboard, inside and
atop tables. History records the existence of table-based games
back to the 15th Century, and a 17th-century table is preserved in
the Great Hall at Hatfield
House. While some games took the wickets croquet and turned
them into the side-rail pockets of modern pocket
billiards, some tables became smaller and had the holes placed
in strategic areas in the middle of the table.
In France, during the
reign of King Louis
XIV, someone took a billiard table and narrowed it, placing the
pins at one end of the table while making the player shoot balls
with a stick or cue from the other end. Pins took too long to reset
when knocked down, so the pins eventually became fixed to the table
and holes took the place of targets. Players could ricochet the
ball off the pins to achieve the harder, higher-scoring
holes.
In 1777 a party was thrown in
honor of the Louis
XVI and the Queen at the Château
de Bagatelle, recently erected at great expense by the king's
brother, the Count of
Artois. Bagatelle from Italian
bagattella, signifies a trifle, a decorative thing. The highlight
of the party was a new table game featuring the slender table and
cue sticks, which players used to shoot ivory balls up an inclined
playfield. The table game was dubbed "Bagatelle" by the Count and
shortly after swept through France.
"Bagatelle" in this sense made
its debut in English in 1819 (OED), its dimensions
soon standardised at 7 feet by 21 inches (GLoag 1969). Bagatelle
spread and became so popular in America as well that a political
cartoon from 1863 depicts President Abraham
Lincoln playing a tabletop bagatelle game.
The Price
Is Right TV gameshow sub-game "Plinko",
although its name might suggest that it was based on pachinko,
bears more resemblance to bagatelle.
References
- John Gloag, 1969. A Short Dictionary of Furniture, "Troumadam" (London: Allen & Unwin)
bagatelle in German:
Bagatelle
bagatelle in Italian:
Bagatelle
bagatelle in Finnish: Fortuna
(peli)
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
a continental, a curse, a
damn, a darn, a hoot, bauble, bean, bibelot, bit, brass farthing, button, cent, curio, farce, farthing, feather, fig, fleabite, folderol, fribble, frippery, gaud, gewgaw, gimcrack, hair, halfpenny, hardly anything,
hill of beans, jest,
joke, kickshaw, knickknack, knickknackery, mere
nothing, minikin,
mockery, molehill, next to nothing,
peppercorn, picayune, pin, pinch of snuff, pinprick, rap, red cent, row of pins, rush, shit, snap, sneeshing, sou, straw, toy, trifle, trinket, triviality, tuppence, two cents, twopence,
whim-wham