This French game was played in the 16th and 17th centuries and similar to Backgammon, on a board. The rules have been unfortunately lost, but it was likely also a gambling game, as was the fashion in those days.
The game is the origin of the expression "left in the lurch", (in French, demeurer lourche) referring to a hopeless losing position.
The game was listed by Rabelais in his work, Gargantua and Pantagruel, in 1534.
The 1586 English Courtier and Country Gentleman said that "In fowle weather, we send for some honest neighbours, if happely wee bee without wives, alone at home (as seldome we are) and with them we play at Dice and Cards, sorting our selves according to the number of Players, and their skill, some in Ticktacke, some Lurche, some to Irish game, or Dublets."
Shakespeare mentions Lourche in Coriolanus and the Merry Wives of Windsor.
Addison (1892) notes that the game is also recorded as Ourche which "suggests that lourche stands for l'ourche, the initial 'l' being merely the definite article," and that ourche may have meant the 'pool' i.e. the pot into which the stakes were placed and thus may have an origin in the Latin urceus, a "pitcher" or "vase".[9]
Godefroy (1888) also states that the game was known in French as Ourche and distinguished from Trictrac.
Samuel Johnson, citing Skinner, says that Lurch derives from l'Ourche, "a game of draughts much used among the Dutch", and that l'Ourche in turn comes from the Latin orca, "box" or "corner".