History
Related to Italian trucco (also known as lawn billiards or trucks in English) and similar games, pall-mall is an early modern development from jeu de mail, a French form of ground billiards.
The name comes from the Italian pallamaglio, which literally means "ball-mallet", ultimately derived from Latin palla and malleus meaning "ball" and "maul, hammer or mallet", respectively. An alternative etymology has been suggested, from Middle French pale-mail or "straw-mallet", in reference to target hoops being made of bound straw.
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