Etymologically
Log in

cricket

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkrɪk.ɪt/[1]

cricket1 insect

Etymology

The insect is inherited from Middle English criket, borrowed from Old French criquet (“cricket, grasshopper”),[2][3][4] from criquer (“to creak, rattle, crackle”), of imitative origin.[2][3][5] Dutch krekel and Low German Krekel are similar;[3][6] the Middle English Compendium takes the French word from Germanic.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The insect: about 1325 in the OED, before 1325 in Barnhart.[7][3] It is earlier as a surname, from 1198.[3] Etymonline notes that the earliest English uses refer to the fabulous fire-dwelling salamander.[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline dates the plain insect sense to about 1500.[2] As merry as a cricket is from 1592.[7]

Timeline

  • 1198 – as a surname.[3]
  • c. 1325 – the insect.[7]
  • 1592 – as merry as a cricket.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A jumping insect like a grasshopper, the males of which make a chirping sound by rubbing their wings together.

cricket2 game

Etymology

The game is of uncertain origin.[4][6] It is perhaps borrowed from Middle French criquet (“goal stake in a game of bowls, stick”),[3][2][5] which may be from Middle Dutch cricke “stick, staff”,[3][2] related to but not the source of crutch.[3][2] MWU suggests instead that criquet is from criquer “to crack”, for the sound of balls hitting the stakes.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The game: 1598 in the OED and Barnhart, in an official document in which a man of 59 swears that as a schoolboy he played cricket on a piece of land in Guildford, Surrey.[7][3][8] MWU has 1575.[5]

Semantic evolution

Early cricket was very different: the bats were like hockey sticks, the wicket had two stumps and one long bail, and the ball was rolled along the ground.[8] Cricket as it should be played, and so fair play, is from 1851, hence not cricket.[7][3][2] The verb, to play cricket, is from about 1809, in Byron's letters.[3]

Timeline

  • 1598 – the game.[7][3]
  • c. 1809 – the verb.[3]
  • 1851 – fair play.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A game played on a field by two teams of eleven, with a hard ball, bats and two wickets.
  2. (informal, dated) Fair and honourable behaviour: it's not cricket.

Verb

  1. To play cricket.
  • cricketer
  • crutch

Usage notes

Cricket, a low wooden stool or footstool, is a third word, from the mid-17th century, of unknown origin; it is now dialectal.[6]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press