backgammon, tricktrack

[The game of tricktrack, backgammon, or tables: and, app., a pair of tables and other apparatus with which that game is played:] a certain thing with which one plays; (M, L;) well known: (M, L, K:) a Persian word, (M, L,) arabicized: (M, L:) also called نَرْدَشِيرٌ, (M, L, K,) because invented (as some say, TA) by Ardasheer the son of Bábak, (K,) a Persian king. (TA.) It is said in a trad., that he who plays at this game is as though he plunged his hand into the flesh and blood of the pig. (L.)