# Origins: Raise A Racket?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 3, 2007, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525 "2007-01-03T12:52:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/1 "2007-01-03T12:52:30Z")

</div>

Why would a “racket” refer to a making noise? Anyone know the origin of this expression?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/2 "2007-01-03T13:50:24Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Jinx]  
Why would a “racket” refer to a making noise? Anyone know the origin of this expression?  
[/QUOTE]

The etymology is unknown. Best guess is that it is imitative.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/3 "2007-01-03T14:02:42Z")

</div>

The word racket comes from Arabic راحة _rāḥah_ ‘palm of the hand’, one of humanity’s oldest noisemakers.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/4 "2007-01-03T15:00:10Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Johanna]  
The word racket comes from Arabic راحة _rāḥah_ ‘palm of the hand’, one of humanity’s oldest noisemakers.  
[/QUOTE]

Actually, the etymology given most dictionaries is from the Arabic for wrist, not palm. Became _rasceta_ in medieval Latin.

But that was the basis for calling the thing with strings a _raquette_ (Fr.), spelled raquet in English (became, sensibly, racket). The etymology for using this term to mean noisy din or criminal enterprise is unknown.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/5 "2007-01-03T15:33:31Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq]  
Actually, the etymology given most dictionaries is from the Arabic for wrist, not palm. Became _rasceta_ in medieval Latin.  
[/QUOTE]  
Please cite the dictionaries that made this error. The Arabic words for wrist are معصم _mi‘ṣam_ and رسغ _rusgh_. I looked it up in _al-Mawrid_ by Munir al-Ba‘labakki and _A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic_ by Hans Wehr, and they all agreed راحة _rāḥah_ means ‘palm of the hand’, not ‘wrist’.

Meanwhile the _[American Heritage Dictionary](http://www.bartleby.com/61/79/R0007900.html)_ says _racket\<rasceta_ comes “from Arabic _rāḥat (al-yad)_, palm (of the hand), bound form of _rāḥa_. See [**rḥ**](http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/S265.html) in Appendix II.”

“ **rḥ**. DEFINITION: Common Semitic noun \*_rāḥat_-, hand, palm of the hand (\*-t-, feminine suffix). racket, from Arabic _rāḥat_, bound form of _rāḥa_, palm of the hand.”

The _Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology_ says _racket_ was “borrowed from Old French _requette, rechete_ racket or battledore, palm of the hand (perhaps influenced by Spanish _raqueta_) from Arabic _rāḥat_, a form of _rāḥa_ palm of the hand.”

The reason for that disappearing and reappearing -_t_ at the end of the word: Arabic feminine nouns have an inherent -_t_ sound in the ending, but when the word is cited in isolation, with a pause after it, the -_t_ is not pronounced. So the ending -_at_ becomes _-ah_ in pausal form. But in the construct state (_al-muḍāfah_), when that ending is followed by a word grammatically asociated with it, the _-t_ is pronounced. Arabic script writes this ending with a single letter ة called _tā’ marbūṭah_ (‘bound t’), which has the round shape of the ه _h_ plus the two upper dots of the smiley-face ت _t_, to show that it can have either pronunciation, depending on the position in a phrase.

Also, I think the etymology of _racket_ in the sense of dishonest business can be traced to the same etymon, since dishonest business practices are symbolized by expressions like “grease someone’s palm,” i.e. pass money surreptitiously.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/6 "2007-01-03T15:37:21Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Johanna]  
But in the construct state  
[/quote]  
Correcting my own error here. The name for the construct state is _al-iḍāfah_.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/7 "2007-01-03T16:13:46Z")

</div>

Two different words with two different etymologies:

[The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/052699.html#racket)

> [@](#):
>
> The sporting kind of “racket” and “racquet” are homophones, meaning that they sound the same. In this case, they also mean the same thing, a sort of webbed bat used in tennis, etc. The sporting “racket” and the corrupt “racket,” however, are homonyms (aka homographs), meaning that they are spelled the same, but here’s the rub. They are completely different, unrelated words that just happen to share a common spelling.
> 
> The sporting kind of racket comes from the French “racquette,” which in turn came from an Arabic word for “palm of the hand,” reflecting the fact that tennis and other racket games were originally played with bare hands. Racket (in the old form “rakkett”) first showed up in English around 1500 A.D. “Racket” and “racquet” are both acceptable spellings here and in England.
> 
> The “corrupt scheme” kind of “racket” comes from another meaning of racket you didn’t mention: “racket” meaning loud noise or confusion. First appearing around 1565, this noisy “racket” is probably “echoic” in origin, meaning that the word itself was supposed to sound noisy and raucous. The “criminal plan” sense of this “racket” is relatively recent, first appearing in 1812, and may have come from the chaos and confusion that are deliberately fostered as part of many illegal schemes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/8 "2007-01-03T18:35:35Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Jinx]  
Why would a “racket” refer to a making noise? Anyone know the origin of this expression?  
[/QUOTE]  
I’m wondering here - is the word “racket” not common to you, to mean loud noise, outside that particular expression? To me, “racket” is just another word that means a loud noise, and that expression is just one way that it’s used. But it can be (and is) used in regular old non-idiomatic sentences:

“there was a racket coming from the other room”  
“my car started making a loud racket”

The other answers have talked about the etymology of the word, but I’m thinking from your question that you’re aware of it only in that one phrase. I thought it was a common word.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-raise-a-racket/386525/9 "2007-01-04T04:52:48Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Johanna]

The _Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology_ says _racket_ was “borrowed from Old French _requette, rechete_ racket or battledore, palm of the hand (perhaps influenced by Spanish _raqueta_) from Arabic _rāḥat_, a form of _rāḥa_ palm of the hand.”  
[/quote]  
This is correct. See the cites **Exapno** gives. It actually shows up in English about 1385 as _raket_.

> [@Johanna](#):
>
> Also, I think the etymology of _racket_ in the sense of dishonest business can be traced to the same etymon, since dishonest business practices are symbolized by expressions like “grease someone’s palm,” i.e. pass money surreptitiously.

This is unlikely. See the cite from **Exapno**.