The story
- Basque · derived fromjai“festival”
- English todayjai alai
From Spanish, from Basque jai (“festival”) + alai (“merry”), coined by 19th century writer Serafín Baroja in order to replace the non-native name pilota. However, although jai alai is composed of Basque words, it is not the name actually used in Basque.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.