billiards

Meaning

Noun

• A two-player cue sport played with two cue balls and one red ball, on a snooker sized table.
• Any of various games played on a tabletop, usually with several balls, one or more of which is hit by a cue.
• Plural of billiard

Origin

• From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille ("log, tree trunk"), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile ("large tree, tree trunk")), from Proto-Celtic *belyos ("tree"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yos ("leaf"), from *bʰleh₃-.