Gool

Gool is a colloquial term used in games of tag to refer to the safe zone, in which players cannot be tagged to become "it". The gool is usually a physical object, such as a tree or swing set, which players must be in physical contact with to be protected. However, this is not always the case and it is sometimes a section of the playing area which is demarcated with a line or some other boundary.

The term is used in the regional dialects of the northern United States, especially northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. By the nature of the game, the word is mostly confined to young school children, so a standard spelling of the word does not readily exist. Consequently, it is occasionally written as either "goal" or "ghoul", although neither spelling is really fitting for the concept. Another alternative spelling is "goul", which fits both the pronunciation and the meaning, but it is also an invented word.

Note that, since this is a regional usage, not all English speakers are familiar with the word and will often confuse it for "goal". In fact, it has been suggested that gool comes from a regional pronunciation difference of goal, although gool has now become an entirely separate word in the minds of those who use it.