Q 01/05

Which out-of-work American invented the game in the early 1930s in Poughkeepsie, New York?

A) Alfred Butts

B) James Brunot

C) Milton Bradley

D) George Parker

Answer · why

A) Alfred Butts

Alfred Butts, out of work in Poughkeepsie during the Depression, reasoned that every game was a number game, a move game or a word game, and blended t...

Q 02/05

Before the crossword-style board was added, the inventor's earlier tile game went by what name?

A) Wordsmith

B) Lexiko

C) Lettergram

D) Alphabetix

Answer · why

B) Lexiko

Lexiko was the inventor's first tile game and had no board; adding a crossword-style grid produced its successor, Criss-Crosswords, the direct ancesto...

Q 03/05

In what year did James Brunot buy the rights to manufacture the game from its inventor?

A) 1941

B) 1948

C) 1955

D) 1962

Answer · why

B) 1948

James Brunot bought the rights in 1948 in exchange for a royalty to the inventor on every set sold; in 1949 his family hand-made 2,400 sets and lost m...

Q 04/05

James Brunot renamed the game Scrabble, a real English word that means what?

A) To argue loudly

B) To gather hastily

C) To scribble quickly

D) To scratch frantically

Answer · why

D) To scratch frantically

The dictionary sense of scrabble is "To scratch frantically" or grope about with the fingers; Brunot chose the name when he took over the game and rea...

Q 05/05

Early orders from which department store helped the game take off around 1952?

A) Gimbels

B) Sears

C) Macy's

D) Woolworth's

Answer · why

C) Macy's

Macy's president Jack Straus played the game on holiday in 1952 and ordered it for his store; demand soon outran the converted Connecticut schoolhouse...