A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest definite reference, it was spelled . The name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English or meaning a crutch or staff, or the French word meaning a wooden post. The Middle Dutch word means a long low stool used for kneeling in church; this resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.Bowen, p. 33. According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, (i.e., "with the stick chase").
