Rugby is the game played with an oval ball that may be carried and passed backwards. Play rugby, a rugby match, rugby boots.
There are two codes with different rules: rugby union with fifteen players a side and rugby league with thirteen, and they split in 1895 over paying players. The ball may be passed backwards only, which is the rule the whole game is built on. Note scrum, try, conversion and line-out; and that the game is named after Rugby School, where the story of a boy picking up the ball is almost certainly a legend.
1nounrugbyA game played with an oval ball that may be carried.
“He played rugby for about eleven years and stopped at thirty.”
rugby is a team sport.
The game takes its name from Rugby School in Warwickshire, and the town's name is Old English. So one of the world's major sports is named after a place, which in turn is named after somebody's farmstead.
Proto-Indo-European
*ker- — to crow
Old English
Rocheberie
English, today
rugby
Built from
From the name of Rugby School in Rugby, in Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom, where the modern game was developed in the 19th century. The place name Rugby is attested in the Domesday Book as Old English Rocheberie (probably equivalent to rook + by), possibly from Hrōcebyriġ, dative singular of Hrōceburh, from hrōc (“rook”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ker- (“to crow”)) + burh, burg (“castle, fort, stronghold; city; town”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰerǵʰ- (“hill, mountain; high, lofty; to rise”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA