Hopscotch

Children’s street game, various forms of which date back to Roman times. The word hopscotch dates from the 18th century but in earlier centuries it was known as hop-scratch, hop-score or scotch-hopping, from hop meaning to jump on one leg and scotch meaning a line or scratch drawn on the ground. It has nothing to do with Scotch as in relating to things Scottish. The game consists in scotching or scratching a playing grid, usually with chalk, then throwing a stone and pebble into progressive squares on the grid. The pebble is then retrieved by players hopping on one leg. The first player to cast his or her pebble into all the squares and successfully retrieve the pebble, without overbalancing, is proclaimed the winner.