racket

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A bat with a round frame and tight strings, used to hit the ball in tennis, badminton, or squash.

   He bought a new tennis racket before the tournament.

2. 2
   noun

   A loud, unpleasant noise.

   The children were making such a racket that I couldn't think.

3. 3
   noun

   A dishonest way of making money.

   The police shut down a drug-smuggling racket last week.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Racket first named a Middle English game resembling modern squash or real tennis; its use for the bat appeared around 1500. The word came through French from an Italian term for “palm of the hand,” because the ball was originally struck by hand. Racket meaning a noise is a separate word, recorded from the mid-16th century and perhaps imitative. The early-19th-century kind of racket practised by a racketeer seems to have developed from this noisy sense.

From Middle English raket, of uncertain origin. Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). From Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (rāḥat al-yad, “palm of the hand”). Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary