Etymology

pari-mutuel

Today it means: Any betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and a house take are removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all placed bets. Full definition →

First used 19th c.French pari mutuel
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The story

  1. French · derived frompari mutuel“mutual bet”
  2. English todaypari-mutuel

From French pari mutuel (“mutual bet”).

First known use, by meaning

  • from 19th c. Any betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and a house take are removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all placed bets.
  • from 19th c. A booth used to place such bets, or a machine used to record bets and calculate payoffs.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.