Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun retronym an indoor
racket sport from which the modern game oftennis (lawn tennis ) is descended
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ancient form of tennis played in a four-walled court
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qroqqa commented on the word real tennis
So called from being the real, authentic game of tennis, played for hundreds of years, as opposed to the newly-invented sphairistike or lawn tennis.
The term 'real tennis' is first known in an 1880 letter of George Eliot; the variant 'royal tennis' is attested from 1902, originally an Australian term, either the origin or a result of a folk etymology.
August 21, 2008