Ever
wonder where some of our traditional games come from?
Go
Fish.
That’s
a good one. We’ve all hear the expression based on the terms fishing.
And, in the true sense of the game, that’s pretty much exactly
what you are doing. You toss the question out there… the bait…
and hope for a hit. Later, that bait can work against you, since
you’re casting out the information that you have that rank of
card in your hand.
The
term “go fish” we know from the game, and has come to refer to
something that is almost a hopeless and lost cause. You’re off
on a fishing expedition… gone fishing. It might be the sarcastic
response given when you don’t get what you ask for. And how about
those legendary fishing tales? Kind of works there too.
It
doesn’t appear that the game ever had anything to do with fishing
though. At least not until one variation of the game became more
noted and popular.
August
Smith is credited with the first documented version of the game.
But it wasn’t called Go Fish. He created a game called Authors.
Produced by a company called Whipple & Smith, I suppose it
wouldn’t surprise you to learn that it involved matching up famous
authors. Most of what I found looking it up appears at times closer
to a flip memory game than a deck of cards in hand, but the foundations
have connections.
And
from the research… that history line leads us back even further.
The
game of Authors is traced back further to other origins, possibly
to the Middle Ages. And before focusing on August Smith, we could
over to Europe and a game called Quartet.
Here
we have a German version of the game. And it is actually believed
that Authors may have been taken from Quartet.
There
is a British version of the game is known as Happy Families, and
as you can plainly see, we begin to find several games… different
places and regions… many claiming to be the original… and no way
to confirm degrees of initial design, coincidence, inspiration
and more.
The
reason it is called Go Fish for so many of us today would likely
be popularity. Funny thing those copyright laws. International
laws didn’t exist in the middle years of the 1800s. They came
about around 1890. So, even lending our nod toward Authors as
the game, it was reproduced in many forms. In many cases though,
Authors may be a reproduction of a previous game, and simply fortunate
enough to be the first one documented.
Want
to get silly? Authors eventually branched out in to other categories,
such as Inventors and Presidents. And the number of cards dealt
differs, depending on the game being played, and perhaps more
importantly, the deck being used.
The
concept, and the laws protecting such situations, come into play
in fascinating ways. For most of us though, all that really matters
is whether or not you have any sevens.