stands for the Yiddish word ???? (nisht, "not", meaning "nothing"), gimel for ???? (gants, "entire, whole"), hei for ???? (halb, "half"), and shin for ???? ???? (shtel arayn, "put in"). The letters served as a means to recalling the rules of the game.

This theory states that when the game spread to Jewish communities unfamiliar with Yiddish, the denotations of the