Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗A board, having letters of the alphabet and the words yes and no; used with a planchette during a seance to "communicate" with spirits. · The use of such a board to attempt to communicate with spirits.
The popular belief that the word came from French oui (“yes”) + German ja (“yes”) is a misconception. The name is taken from a word spelled out on the board when it was asked to name itself by Helen Peters, sister-in-law of Kennard Company investor Elijah Bond. It is noted in personal letters that Ouija was the name of a woman in a painting above her head at the time, who it is speculated may have in fact been Ouida.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "ncog",
"args": {
"1": "fr",
"2": "oui",
"3": "",
"4": "yes"
},
"expansion": "French oui (“yes”)"
},
{
"name": "ncog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "ja",
"3": "",
"4": "yes"
},
"expansion": "German ja (“yes”)"
}
],
"links": [
[
"oui",
"oui#French"
],
[
"ja",
"ja#German"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A board, having letters of the alphabet and the words yes and no; used with a planchette during a seance to \"communicate\" with spirits.",
"The use of such a board to attempt to communicate with spirits."
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"recordId": "acbe9622e1badb35a3b133ee049c5c4c1eecf77785a1f3a81701e242d90ea361",
"rawRecordSha256": "9f8659150e4d3293565a14e0a341c674f3273ed8d1d5b54b005a17bb463f5e8f",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 354059
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 0,
"glosses": 0
}
}