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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
backgammon \back"gam'mon\, noun [Origin unknown; perhaps fr. Dan. bakke tray + E. game; or very likely the first part is from E. back, adverb, and the game is so called because the men are often set back.] A game of chance and skill, played by two persons on a ''board'' marked off into twenty-four spaces called ''points''. Each player has fifteen pieces, or ''men'', the movements of which from point to point are determined by throwing dice. Formerly called {tables}.
{backgammon board}, a board for playing backgammon, often made in the form of two rectangular trays hinged together, each tray containing two ''tables''.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Tables (Mark 7:4) means banqueting-couches or benches, on which the Jews reclined when at meals. This custom, along with the use of raised tables like ours, was introduced among the Jews after the Captivity. Before this they had, properly speaking, no table. That which served the purpose was a skin or piece of leather spread out on the carpeted floor. Sometimes a stool was placed in the middle of this skin. (See ABRAHAM'S {BOSOM}; {BANQUET}; {MEALS}.)
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