Word of the Day: May 11, 2009 ~ hockey

hockey (hok-ee) - noun

Hockey is "a game in which two parties of players, armed with sticks curved or hooked at the end, attempt to drive any small object (as a ball or a bit of wood) toward opposite goals."

Was first used in the written form around 1520-1530. The first known unequivocal reference to the game of hockey comes in William Holloway's General Dictionary of Provincialisms 1838, where he calls it hawkey, and describes it was a "game played by several boys on each side with sticks, called hawkey-bats, and a ball" (the term came from West Sussex). It is not known for certain where the word originated, but it is generally assumed to be related in some way to hook, with reference to the hockey stick's curved end. The Galway Statues of 1527 refer to the "hurling of the little ball with hockie sticks or staves," which may mean 'curved sticks.'

Photo by Rodrigo Moraes