The Collaborative International Dictionary
mahjong \mahjong\, Mah-Jongg \Mah-Jongg\n. A Chinese game played by 4 people with 144 tiles.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1922, from dialectal Chinese (Shanghai) ma chiang, name of the game, literally "sparrows," from ma "hemp" + chiang "little birds." The game so called from the design of the pieces. It had a vogue in Europe and the U.S. 1922-23 and for a time threatened to supplant bridge in popularity.
Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of mahjong English)
Wikipedia
Mah-Jongg or Jongy was a ring-tailed lemur who was owned by Virginia and Stephen Courtauld. Jongy was purchased at Harrods in 1923 and lived with the Courtaulds for fifteen years, accompanying the couple on their travels and changes of residence. Jongy died at Eltham Palace, Greenwich, in 1938.
Jongy had his own room at Eltham Palace. The room was centrally heated with a ladder (made of bamboo) that accesses the entrance to the house.
Usage examples of "mah-jongg".
Chinese maidens and played mah-jongg, and fads had seemed to come out of the woodwork, superseding each other in months and sometimes weeks.