Cetno i licho

{{Short description|Polish game of chance}}

Cetno i licho is a simple game of chance, of ancient European provenance{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} (see par-impar{{Cite web|title = A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities|url = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%253Atext%253A1999.04.0063%253Aalphabetic+letter%253DP%253Aentry+group%253D1%253Aentry%253Dpar-impar-ludere-cn|website = www.perseus.tufts.edu|access-date = 2016-02-06|date = 1890}}), where the players had to guess if the hidden objects were even (czetno, cetno,{{Cite book|title = Slownik jẹzyka polskiego|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4XzRAAAAMAAJ|date = 1808-01-01|language = de|first = Samuel Bogumił|last = Linde}}{{Cite book|title = Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego: A-K|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8A1iAAAAMAAJ|publisher = Wydawn. Naukowe PWN|date = 2000-01-01|isbn = 9788301130169|language = pl|first = Andrzej|last = Bańkowski}} cet{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OzIJGwAACAAJ|title=Cet czy licho: powieść historyczna z końca wieku XVII|date=1978-01-01|publisher=Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza|language=pl}}{{Cite book|title = Przyslowia polskie|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=muEpAQAAIAAJ|date = 1969-01-01|language = pl}} or čet{{Cite book|title = Numerals: Comparative-etymological Analyses of Numeral Systems and Their Implications : Saharan, Nubian, Egyptian, Berber, Kartvelian, Uralic, Altaic and Indo-European Languages|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iUcnAQAAIAAJ|publisher = Masarykova Univerzita|date = 1999-01-01|isbn = 9788021020702|first = Václav|last = Blažek}}) or odd (licho, see likho, or liszka{{Cite book|title = Słownictwo i frazeologia życia towarzyskiego w polskiej leksykografii XX wieku|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WChhAAAAMAAJ|publisher = Wydawn. Naukowe UAM|date = 2004-01-01|isbn = 9788323213789|language = pl|first = Anna|last = Piotrowicz}}{{Cite web|url = https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/abs/article/download/abs.2012.012/73|title = DAWNA LEKSYKA CIECHANOWCA I OKOLICZNYCH WSI|date = 2012|last = Irena Maryniakowa}}{{Cite web|title = Dzieła poetyckie|url = https://archive.org/stream/dzieapoetyckie02polw/dzieapoetyckie02polw_djvu.txt| work = Internet Archive |access-date = 2016-02-06}}) in number,{{Cite book|title = Nouveau grand dictionnaire ... francois, latin & polonois, enrichi des mellieurs françons [sic] de parler. Avec des notes de critique & de grammaire sur ces trois langues. Tome second|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6SBhAAAAcAAJ|publisher = dans l'imprimerie Royalle de la Republique aux Ecolles Pieuses|date = 1745-01-01|first = Pierre|last = DANET}}{{Cite web|title = Encyklopedia staropolska/Licho - Wikiźródła, teksty i materiały źródłowe|url = https://pl.wikisource.org/wiki/Encyklopedia_staropolska/Licho|website = pl.wikisource.org|access-date = 2016-01-18}}{{Cite web|title = Этимология и история слов русского языка|url = http://etymolog.ruslang.ru/index.php?act=essja|website = etymolog.ruslang.ru|access-date = 2016-01-18}}{{Cite web|title = Cetno–licho|url = http://www.gutenberg.czyz.org/word,10203|website = Encyklopedia Gutenberga|access-date = 2016-01-18}} with licho also meaning 'bad luck' or 'devil'.{{Cite book|title = Ausführliches polnisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch zum Gebrauche für Deutsche und Polen: nebst einem Anhange, das Verzeichniß unregelmäßiger Formen enthaltend|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bklZAAAAcAAJ|publisher = Ernst Siegfried Mittler|date = 1835-01-01|language = de|first = Józef Kajetan|last = Trojański}} The counted objects could also be white or black pawns or lines drawn in ashes, and the game had mystical overtones of invoking the Sudice, the Slavic counterpart of the Fates{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l40LCgAAQBAJ|title=Mitologia słowiańska|last=Bruckner|first=Aleksander|date=2015-06-30|publisher=Helion|isbn=9788328554085|language=pl}} (compare the Old English term wyrd).