Talk:Lourche

Link-to added
I have added a link from the page Lurch (dab). Not much, but at least this stub is no longer a complete orphan ;-) Surely somewhere there must be an obscure 17th century MS describing this game. C'mon, French history scholars! --D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 19:56, 9 January 2020 (UTC)


 * Sadly, the rules don't appear in the usual French sources nor did Fiske (1905) track them down and he researched tables games widely. But at least we know that it was originally called Ourche. Some sources suggest it was a popular Dutch game... Bermicourt (talk) 12:24, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

OED entry
The following is a quote from the OED entry, found on Dawn Reader. Since OED is copyright & no longer freely accessible, I can't include it in the article. However, perhaps the references may point to sources for further research. The number of cites is remarkable for a game that now appears to be completely lost; unfortunately, only four refer directly to the original board game.

lurch, n.1 Forms: Also 15–16 lurche, lurtch. Frequency (in current use): Etymology: < French lourche (erroneously written l'ourche ...

†1. A game, no longer known, supposed to have resembled backgammon. Obs.

1611  R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues  Lourche, the game called Lurche. 1653  T. Urquhart tr. Rabelais 1st Bk. Wks. xxii. 94  There he played..At the lurch. 1656  Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso (1674) i. xli. 57  He might account business his pastime..instead of Picquet or Lurch. 1693  T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xii. 98  My Mind was only running upon the lurch and tricktrack.

2. Used in various games to denote a certain concluding state of the score, in which one player is enormously ahead of the other; often, a ‘maiden set’ or love-game, i.e. a game or set of games in which the loser scores nothing; at cribbage, a game in which the winner scores 61 before the loser has scored 31; in whist, a treble. to save the lurch: in whist, to prevent one's adversary from scoring a treble. Now rare (? or Obs.).

1598  J. Florio Worlde of Wordes   Marcio, a lurch or maiden set at any game. 1606  T. Dekker Seuen Deadly Sinnes London iv. sig. E2  What by Betting, Lurches, Rubbers and such tricks, they neuer tooke care for a good daies worke afterwards. 1608  T. Dekker Belman of London F 3   Whose Inne is a Bowling Alley, whose bookes are bowles, and whose law cases are lurches and rubbers. 1653  T. Urquhart tr. Rabelais 2nd Bk. Wks. xii. 86  By two of my table men in the corner-point I have gained the lurch. 1674  F. Gouldman Copious Dict. (ed. 3) 1  A lurch, duplex palma, facilis victoria. 1742  E. Hoyle Short Treat. Game Whist i. 13  A Probability either of saving your Lurch, or winning the Game. 1745  Gentleman's Mag. Nov. 606/2  A King!—we're up—I vow I fear'd a lurch. 1784  H. Walpole Let. 14 Aug. (1858) VIII. 495  Lady Blandford has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch. 1860  Bohn's Handbk. Games iii. 83  The game [long whist] consists of ten points; when no points are marked by the losing partners, it is treble, and reckons three points;..This is called a lurch. 1876  ‘Capt. Crawley’ Card Player's Man. 18  Lurch (at Long Whist), not saving the double. 1876  ‘Capt. Crawley’ Card Player's Man. 128  [Cribbage] A lurch—scoring the whole sixty-one before your adversary has scored thirty-one—is equivalent to a double game. 1897  Earl of Suffolk et al. Encycl. Sport I. 129/2  Lurch game, a game in which one side has scored five before the other has scored one.

3.

†a. A discomfiture. Obs.

1584  T. Lodge Alarum against Vsurers C ij b   If heereafter thou fall into the lyke lurch,..so then I will accompt of thee as a reprobate. 1607  Merrie Iests George Peele 30   The Tapster hauing many of these lurches fell to decay. 1608  R. Armin Nest of Ninnies sig. D1v  Often such forward deedes, meete with backward lurches. 1679  Heart & Right Soveraign 119   The Italian out-wits the Jew in his part, and the lurch befalls the English side.

†b. to give (a person) the lurch: to discomfit, get the better of. Obs.

1598  E. Guilpin Skialetheia sig. B6  Gellia intic'd her good-man to the Citty, And often threatneth to giue him the lurch. ?c1600  Bride's Buriall 38 in Roxburghe Ballads (1871) I. 248   Faire Hellens face gaue Grecian Dames the lurch. 1626  N. Breton Pasquils Mad-cap (Grosart) 6/2   How ere his wit may giue the foole the lurch, He is not fit to gouerne in the Church.

†c. to have (take) on (in, at) the lurch: to have or take (a person) at a disadvantage. Obs.

1591  R. Greene Notable Discouery of Coosenage f. 5   There was forty to one on my side, and ile haue you on the lurch by and by. 1601  J. Weever Mirror of Martyrs sig. Bviijv  Shee..Sels lyes for nothing, nothing for too much; Faith for three farthings, t'haue thee in the lurch. 1615  T. Adams Blacke Devill 74   Thus the great Parasite of the soule, that heretofore..flatter'd this wretch with the paucity of his sinnes; now takes him in the lurch, and ouer-reckons him. a1657  G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry IV clx, in Poems (1878) IV. 41  The Sage Span of a Circle tooke the Starres at Lurch, To Conspire Storme. 1719  in T. D'Urfey Wit & Mirth V. 3   He took me in the lurch.

†d. in a person's lurch: in his power. Obs.

1607  R. C. tr. H. Estienne World of Wonders 195  Hauing him in his lurch and at his lure. 1641  T. Goodwin Tryall Christians Growth i. 126   David, when he had Saul in his lurch, might as easily have cut off his head. a1643  J. Shute Sarah & Hagar (1649) 93   They lose their authority when they come within the lurch of their servants.

e. to leave in the lurch: to leave in adverse circumstances without assistance; to leave in a position of unexpected difficulty. Cf. the somewhat earlier phr. to leave in the lash (see lash n.1 4).

1596  T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden sig. Q  Whom..he also procured to be equally bound with him for his new cousens apparence to the law, which he neuer did, but left both of them in the lurtch for him. 1600  P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. 222  The Volscians seeing themselves abandoned and left in the lurch by them,..quit the campe and field. 1663  S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. iii. 220  And though th' art of a diff'rent Church, I will not leave thee in the lurch. 1694  R. South 12 Serm. II. 192  In Transubstantiation; where Accidents are left in the lurch by their proper Subject. 1711  J. Addison Spectator No. 119. ¶6  If the Country Gentlemen get into it they will certainly be left in the Lurch. 1873  E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 357  My Eyes have been leaving me in the lurch again. 1879  R. Browning Martin Relph 66   He has left his sweetheart here in the lurch.

†4. A cheat, swindle. Obs. (In our quots. the earliest recorded use.)

1533  J. Heywood Mery Play Pardoner & Frere sig. B.iv  No more of this wranglyng in my chyrch I shrewe your hartys bothe for this lurche. c1540  Image Ipocrysy ii, in J. Skelton Poet. Wks. (1843) II. 432  They blered hym with a lurche. 1604  T. Middleton Blacke Bk. E iv  I giue and bequeath to thee..All such Lurches, Gripes, and Squeezes, as may bee wrung out by the fist of extortion. 1611  R. Badley in T. Coryate Crudities sig. k2  Briefly, for triall of a religious lurch, Thou nimbd'st an image out of Brixias Church. ?1624  G. Chapman tr. Hymn to Hermes in tr. Crowne Homers Wks. 63  I'le haue a Scape, as well as he a Serch, And ouertake him with a greater lurch. --D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 20:32, 9 January 2020 (UTC)


 * it's not unusual for a game to be mentioned frequently in the literature but few or no rules recorded. In this case, confusingly "lurch" is also a term for losing a card game badly, as in Whist or Cribbage, and has nothing to do with a tables game. If I come across anything, I'll certainly add it here. Bermicourt (talk) 19:27, 28 November 2021 (UTC)