Also 6 creckett, 7 krickett. [Etymology uncertain.
The word occurs in a document of 1598 (see below), and the evidence then given takes the game back to the end of the reign of Henry VIII. The word appears to be the same as F. criquet given by Littré as ‘jeu d’adresse,’ by Godefroy as ‘bâton servant de but au jeu de boules,’ with a quot. of 1478, ‘Le suppliant arriva en ung lieu ou on jouoit a la boulle, pres d’une atache [vine-stake] ou criquet.’ It has been surmised that it is the same as CRICKET sb.3, and the game a development of that known as STOOL-BALL, to which there are many references from 1567 to 1725, as a game at which girls and women especially played; but this is very doubtful: cricket, a stool, is itself not in evidence till a later date. Cricket cannot be a deriv. of OE. crycc ‘knobbed staff,’ for here the cc was palatal and gave ME. crytch, crutch; but F. criquet might be a deriv. of the cognate M.Flem. krick, kricke, ‘baston à s’appuyer, quinette, potence.’ Many changes have been made in the character of the game since the 17th c. when the bats were hockey-sticks, the wicket of two stumps with one long bail, and the ball trundled or ‘bowled’ along the ground. Cf. BAIL sb.4, BAT sb.2, BOWL v., WICKET.]
An open-air game played with ball, bats, and wickets, by two sides of eleven players each; the batsman defends his wicket against the ball, which is bowled by a player of the opposing side, the other players of this side being stationed about the ‘field’ in order to catch or stop the ball.
1598. Guild Merchant Bk. (MS. in Guildford Borough Records), John Denwick of Guldeford … one of the Queenes Majesties Coroners of the County of Surrey being of the age of fyfty and nyne yeares or there aboute … saith upon his oath that hee hath known the parcell of land … for the space of Fyfty years and more, and … saith that hee being a schollar in the free schoole of Guldeford, hee and several of his fellowes did runne and play there at Creckett and other plaies. [Cf. History of Guildford (1801), 203.]
1611. Cotgr., Crosse … also, a Cricket-staffe; or, the crooked staffe wherewith boyes play at Cricket. Crosser, to play at Cricket.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxii. At cricket.
1662. J. Davies, Voy. Ambass., 297. A certain Game, which the Persians call Kuitskaukan, which is a kind of Mall, or Cricket.
1675. Teonge, Diary (1825), 159. Wee had severall pastimes and sports, as duck hunting,… handball, krickett, scrofilo.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, IV. iv. When he happened to meet with a foot-ball, or a match at cricket.
1781. Cowper, Lett., 28 May. When I was a boy I excelled at cricket and foot-ball.
1881. Daily News, 9 July, 2/5. The cricket was very slow for a time.
1888. Pardon, Wisden’s Almanac, 111. Mr. W. G. Grace played excellent cricket.
2. attrib. and Comb., as cricket-ball, -bat, -club, -field, -ground, -match, -player, † -staff.
1611. Cricket-staffe [see above].
1658. E. Phillips, Myst. Love & Eloq., 50 Would my eyes had been beat out of my head with a cricket-ball.
1747. Scheme Equip. Men of War, 37. In as great Esteem in London, as Cricket Matches are at this Day.
1748. Jenyns, Imit. Hor. Epist., II. i. 109, Wks. (1790), I. 93 (R.).
| Hence all her [England’s] well-bred heirs | |
| Gamesters and jockies turn’d, and cricket-play’rs. |
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 30, ¶ 6. Sometimes an unlucky boy will drive his cricket-ball full in my face.
1755. (title) The Game at Cricket, as settled by the Several Cricket Clubs.
1825. in Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 636. I was stunned with shouts … from the cricket ground.
1860. All Year Round, No. 53. 58. I observe a sheaf of cricket-bats in the corner.
1884. I. Bligh, in Lillywhite’s Cricket Ann., 3. An eleven on an Australian cricket-field.
