croquet
UK[ˈkrəʊkeɪ]US[kroʊˈkeɪ]
n
A game played on a lawn in which players use mallets to drive wooden balls through a series of hoops.
v
To drive away (an opponent's ball) by striking one's own ball placed in contact with it in the game of croquet.
Etymology
The word 'croquet' entered English in the mid-19th century from Northern French dialect, specifically the Norman word 'croquet', meaning a hockey stick or a crook. This French term is a diminutive of 'croche', meaning "hook," derived from Old Norse 'krókr'. The game's name originates from the hooked shape of the mallet used to strike the balls. The evolution from a simple term for a hooked stick to the name of a formal lawn game illustrates a common pattern where a tool's name becomes metonymically associated with the entire activity for which it is essential.
Analysis
The word is a loanword from French and is not productively formed from separable English morphemes. It is treated as a simplex unit.
Examples
We spent a pleasant afternoon playing croquet on the vicarage lawn.
She expertly croqueted my ball into the rose bushes, putting me at a severe disadvantage.
The garden party featured traditional games like badminton and croquet.