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What is the origin of the word ?

The origins of the word hockey are almost as contentious as the question of who invented the game. One of the more popular derivations is the Old French hoquet, or “shepherd’s crook,” possibly a reference to the stick used in early forms of the game. Some think hoquet can be traced farther back to the Germanic root word hok or hak, which refers to a curved or bent piece of wood or metal. Likely, this is also the root of the English word hook. Nobody can say for sure, though. Hockey might just as easily owe its origin as a word to Scandinavia or Holland. One thing most people agree on, however, is that the word once signified the instrument of play rather than the game itself.

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Did you know …

that just before British soldiers fled New York City in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War, they reportedly played a game of Irish hurling on skates, and that a version of hockey was played in Stoney Brook (today’s Princeton), New Jersey, in the winter of 1786?