Billiards

:This article is about the group of cue games. In the UK, "billiards" is the name for the specific game of English billiards. In the Netherlands, billiards is the name for the game of Carambole billiards.

Related Topics:
English billiards - Netherlands - Carambole billiards

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Billiards is a family of games played on a table, with a stick, known as a cue stick, being used to strike balls, moving them around the table. In certain contexts, "billiards" refers unambiguously to one or other of these games, such as English billiards or carambole billiards.

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All billiard games are generally regarded to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick and ball games (1). The word billiard may have evolved from the French word 'billart' which means mace, the forerunner to the modern cue.

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The word pool generally refers to pocket billiard games such as 8-ball, 9-ball, or Straight pool. The word pool comes from poolrooms, where people gambled off track on horse races. They were called poolrooms as money was "pooled" to determine the odds. These rooms commonly provided billiard tables, and by association pool became synonymous with billiards. The terms pool and pocket billiards are synonymous.

Related Topics:
8-ball - 9-ball - Straight pool - Horse races

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