Etymology

Kelly pool

Today it means: A pocket billiards game using numbered markers, called peas or pills, and a standard set of sixteen pool balls. Players draw peas at random from a shake bottle, which assigns to them the correspondingly numbered pool ball, kept secret from their opponents, but which they must pocket in order to win the game. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Reportedly invented by Calistus "Kelly" Mulvaney in 1893.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.