lacrosse
Pronunciation
Etymology
It is borrowed from French la crosse (“the hooked stick, the crosier”), the name French speakers in Canada gave to the game,[2][3][4][5] shortened from jeu de la crosse (“game of the hooked stick”).[6][7][8][9][10] Barnhart notes that la crosse first meant the racket used in the game.[3] The phrase is made of the article la (“the”) and crosse,[11][12] which in Middle French already named a stick used to drive a ball in various games, a special use of crosse, a staff with a hooked end.[11] The French word is Old French croce (“crosier”), also crosse, of Germanic origin,[13][8] perhaps through *croccia, a Gallo-Romance form,[6] from Proto-Germanic *kruk-, the source of crook and crutch.[6][7][12] Klein gives the Germanic form as Proto-West Germanic *krukja (“crutch”).[12] The game itself was Native American, and its native name is reflected in Ojibwe baaga'adowe (“to play lacrosse”).[6]
Earliest recorded meaning
The game played by Native Americans with netted sticks: 1718, in American English, according to Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.[3][2]
Semantic evolution
Ayto describes how the French phrase jeu de la crosse was reduced and fused into the single word lacrosse.[7] The dates of the English word vary widely between the dictionaries: 1718 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,[3][2] 1710–20 in Dictionary.com,[4] the 17th century in Hoad,[8] 1850 in Etymonline[6] and 1867 in the OED, whose entry is not fully revised.[11] Weekley notes that the Canadian game is mentioned in 1763,[14] and a Canadian text written in 1821 speaks of the "Game of de la Crosse or Baggatiway".[5] The modern form and rules of the game were laid down in Canada in 1860.[6] The stick itself is called a crosse.[9][2]
Timeline
- 1718 – first record of the word, in American English.[3][2]
- 1763 – the Canadian game is mentioned.[14]
- 1821 – "the Game of de la Crosse or Baggatiway".[5]
- 1850 – Etymonline's first date.[6]
- 1860 – the modern rules are laid down in Canada.[6]
- 1867 – the OED's first record, in a title.[11]
Meanings
Noun
- A team ball game that began among the Native Americans, in which players catch, carry and throw the ball with long-handled sticks ending in a net pouch and try to send it into the other team's goal.[15][2][11][9]
Word family
- box lacrosse
Related words
- crosse
- crosier
- crook
- crutch
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ a b c Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
- ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
- ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
- ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins