High jinks

High jinks was a popular eighteenth-century Scottish drinking and forfeit game built around the throw of a single die. Players took turns casting the die, and a poor throw meant the caster had to choose between drinking more alcohol or carrying out an undignified task set by the rest of the group, such as a silly performance or a small dare. The game had no fixed board or monetary stakes beyond the drink and the forfeit itself, so its entertainment came from social pressure and the unpredictability of the die rather than from strategy or skill. It was played widely enough as a tavern and social pastime in Scotland that its name outlived the game itself: the phrase high jinks passed into general English usage to describe boisterous pranks or frolics long after the specific dice-and-forfeit game it named had fallen out of everyday play. The original game is documented as a distinct historical pastime, not only as the source of the later idiom.