the.com/tag
a 3,500-year-old game where touching someone is the entire point and the threat
means A short label, marker, or piece of identifying information attached to something — or, as a verb, to add such a label, or to touch someone in the game of the same name.
from The childhood game and the label feel like strangers, but English knotted them together centuries ago. 'Tag' for a hanging scrap or dangling end appeared in late Middle English, likely from a Scandinavian source related to words for a tuft or point — think of the little metal tip on a shoelace, the aglet, which carries the same idea of a small thing fixed to the end of a bigger thing. From 'dangling bit' the word stretched naturally to 'attached label,' then in the modern era to digital labels and #hashtags. The game 'tag' is the odder cousin: its sense of touching or catching probably grew from the same 'to attach, to make contact' notion, though the exact path is murky.
- ancient roots
- Played in some form since Greek and Roman times
- world record
- Largest game involved over 10,000 chasing players
- pro version
- World Chase Tag is a real televised sport
- freeze variant
- Being tagged stops time until a friend frees you
- animal instinct
- Apes and dolphins play their own chasing games
hashtag — metadata label on social media platforms, originated on twitter in 2007 by chris messina
rfid tag — radio-frequency identification chip used in retail inventory, developed commercially in the 1980s
price tag — label attached to merchandise showing cost, standard retail practice since department stores in 1900s