DCHP-1 Online
hockey † [< hock bent stick, a variant of hook. See 1527 quote.] 
n. a sport played on ice on a board-enclosed rink by two teams of six men each whose object is to shoot a puck into the opponents' goal.
See also: ice hockey shinny (def. 2)
- 1527 (1934) [The name [hockey] which is apparently derived from the French hoquet meaning shepherd's crook, is found in Murray's Dictionary of 1527 where it is defined as "the horlinge of the litill ball with hockie sticks or staves."]
- 1895 Hockey is the most popular winter sport in Canada, taking the place of lacrosse.
- 1916 He was himself an expert amateur athlete, famous at hockey--baseball not yet being invented.
- 1954 Boys' clubs started, hockey games filled in the winter, ball diamond opened--and juvenile courts closed.
- 1963 Evidence was presented to the effect that Members of Her Majesties Royal Canadian Rifles, an Imperial Army Unit, had played ice hockey to the rear of Tete du Pont barracks [Halifax] in 1855.
- 1963 In 1885 Queen's University and the Royal Military College played Canada's first organized hockey game. . . .
- 1964 Enlarged newspaper clippings referring to hockey played here [Halifax] in 1833 "proves that this is where it all started," says Ahern, who claims the game was born here in 1828.
- 1527 (1934) [The name [hockey] which is apparently derived from the French hoquet meaning shepherd's crook, is found in Murray's Dictionary of 1527 where it is defined as "the horlinge of the litill ball with hockie sticks or staves."]