the.com/domino
a tile that exists only to fall, dragging everyone down with it
means A small rectangular tile marked with two groups of pips used in a family of games, or by extension any one event in a chain that triggers others to follow in sequence.
from From French and Italian 'domino', which earlier named a hooded winter cloak worn by priests, and before that likely the masquerade hood and the black half-mask that went with it — the link to the gaming tile is usually traced to its black-backed, white-faced look echoing those black-and-white garments. The cloak word itself traces back to Latin 'dominus', 'lord' (and possibly the phrase 'benedicamus Domino', 'let us bless the Lord'), so a tile that topples its neighbors carries, faintly, the word for 'master'.
- record chain
- Over 4 million dominoes toppled in one 2009 event
- hidden mass
- Each domino can topple one 1.5x bigger
- masquerade
- The word first meant a hooded monk's cloak
- cold war doctrine
- Domino theory shaped decades of U.S. foreign policy
- china roots
- Game spread from China to Europe by 1700s
domino's pizza — pizza chain founded 1960, now operates 18,800+ stores worldwide
domino effect — chain reaction principle demonstrated by klaus ertl setting 4.4 million dominoes in 2022