A crossword is a word game on a grid of little boxes. Some boxes are black. The white ones make paths across and down. Each path has a number, and you get a short clue. You write one letter in each box so that the words going across share letters with the words going down. That crossing is the heart of the name. People say crossword or crossword puzzle. In many newspapers it is a quiet daily habit, especially for adults. The English in the clues can be sly even though the word crossword itself is simple. Though actually, the first modern puzzle, in 1913, was called a word-cross by a man named Arthur Wynne. Crossword appeared a few weeks later, perhaps as a printer’s mix-up or a deliberate flip, and the flipped name stuck. Older word puzzles were already being called crosswords in the 1860s, but the numbered newspaper grid we picture now dates from Wynne. It is a sit-down game, not a sport.