DCHP-2

shinny [< Scottish dial. shinny, shinty game played with a ball and curved sticks, perhaps < the whack of stick against shin] DCHP-2 (May 2016)

• 1a † n. — Sports

  a form of hockey played on a road or street with hockey sticks and, usually, a ball.

  Type: 2. Preservation — Shinny is a preservation from British or Scottish English, in which it was used to refer to a game similar to field hockey (see OED-3, s.v. "shinny" n.1).

  See also: road hockey  road apple  

• 1b n. — Hockey

  a loosely organized game resembling hockey, played on ice with a puck and without referees (see Image 1).

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — Shinny has undergone semantic change in Canada and has come to denote a similar game to meaning 1a, although played on ice. Shinny is widely believed to be the precursor to hockey (see, e.g. the 1894 quotation).
  See also OED-3, s.v. "shinny" (draft additions June 2006), which is marked "orig. Canad."

  See also: hockey  millpond hockey  shinty  scrub (meaning 1)  

• 1c n. & adj. — Hockey

  a hockey game characterized by poor or rough play.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — After the establishment of rules and organization in hockey (c. 1875), shinny was often used in reference to hockey games that were particularly rough, crude or disorganized. The connotation is that the game has degenerated into the undisciplined form originating in the late 19th century.

• 2 n. — Hockey, slang

  a nickname for hockey.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — Although quite soon after the establishment of organized hockey strong distinctions were made between hockey and shinny, the term came to used as a nickname for organized hockey, not only informal games (see meaning 1b).

  See also: hockey