DCHP-2

ringette DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• n. — Sports

  a non-contact team sport played on ice similar to hockey (see Image 1), played especially by women and girls.

  Type: 1. Origin — Ringette was first introduced in Ontario in 1963 (see Ringette Canada reference). It was originally developed for girls, who had limited winter recreational opportunities compared to boys who played ice hockey. Rather than hockey sticks and pucks, the sport is played with straight sticks and small rubber rings. Ringette quickly spread from Ontario and Quebec to the rest of Canada, and leagues now exist in the US, Finland, Sweden, Russia and France. While growing in popularity over the years and expanding, the sport is not nearly as popular as hockey. The 1988 quotation, which explains the sport to Vancouver Sun readers, as well as the 2016 quotation, with its mission to "grow the sport", suggest that ringette had not been generally known in the late 1980s and that even today it has not completely shaken off its fringe status.
  See also Gage-3, s.v. "ringette", ITP Nelson, s.v. "ringette", which is marked "Sports", and OED-3, s.v. "ringette", which is marked "Canad.".

  See also: hockey