I came across this word origin by accident the other day when a student asked me: “how do you pronounce ‘mall’ in shopping mall? Is it /mɔl/ or /mæl/? I went for the former, like the ‘all’ in ‘tall’. However, my student then followed up by asking how to pronounce the ‘Mall’ in ‘Pall Mall’, which is /mæl/. Some of you may remember Pall Mall from the Monopoly board, while London dwellers may be familiar with Pall Mall (SW1) itself.
So what is a Pall Mall anyway?
The Mall, a broad, tree-lined promenade in St. James’s Park London, was named as such in the 1670s; before that date it was called Maill (1640s) so called because it formerly was an open alley which was used to play ‘pall-mall’, a croquet-like game described in the book ‘Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English 1857 as “A game wherein a round box bowle is with a mallet strucke through a high arch of yron (standing at either end of an alley one) which he that can do at the fewest blowes, or at the number agreed on winnes.”. Anyone who has played croquet (and I’m guessing that isn’t many of you) may know that it involves hitting a ball with a mallet through a ring. Think of Victorian images of ladies in white dresses with long wooden sticks ending in a hammer head.
The English ‘name’ for the game comes from the French pallemaille, deriving from the Italian pallamaglio, from palla “ball” + maglio “mallet”.
An interesting history of Palle Maille can be found on Wikipedia where it is argued that Pall Mall may come from Middle French pale-mail or “straw-mallet”, in reference to target hoops being made of bound straw; however, the evidence put forward for that comes from a self-published 1901 article Les Sports et jeux ď exercice dans l’ancienne France .
A much more interesting history is argued in … including a reference to the book: A method for travell: shewed by taking the view of France, in 1598, by Robert Darllington. Darllington was travelling on a Grand Tour across Europe when he came across the French game pallemaile. He bemoaned the fact that Palle-Maille, as he spelled it, wasn’t played in England:
‘Among all the exercises of France, I preferre none before the Palle-maille, both because it is a Gentleman-like sport, not violent, and yeelds good occasion and opportunity of discourse, as they walke from the one marke to the other. I marvell, among many more Apish and foolish toyes, which wee have brought out of France, that wee have not brought this sport also into England.’
It is interesting to note that the modern game of Golf might not be what it is today without the trailblazing of jeu de mail. Its substance and spirit are based on the ancient French game which contributed the concepts of unopposed singles or team matches – each player with his club and ball – caddies, pros, clubhouses, penalties, handicapping, the cry ‘Gare’ that led to ‘Fore’, the use of a tee for the initial drive, greenkeepers, and much more.
The original game of golf is first mentioned (along with fut-bol) in a 1457 Scottish statute on forbidden games.
‘That in na place of the realme thair be vsit fut-ballis, golf, or vther sic unprofitabill sportis’
[Acts James IV, 1491, c.53].
The word itself comes from mid-15c., Scottish gouf, meaning “stick, club, bat.” And before anyone writes; no, Golf is not an acronym of ‘Gentleman Only Ladies Forbidden’. This story seems to date back no earlier than 1997. Sorry, to disappoint.
AboutWords 