Snooker. The Biography of a Word
This booklet, as its title suggests, is concerned with the origin of the word snooker, with its various meanings, and also with a number of versions of how the name of a cape on navigational charts, and a slang expression in various dialects, first became the nickname of a first-year cadet at Woolwich, and then gradually passed on to the game which today is quite rightly called ‘chess on green baize.’
It is quite possible—indeed, more than likely—that the material I have gathered over many years is not complete, and that new facts will come to light in time.
For the present, however, I have gathered everything I could, and from wherever I could. And I have set it down as best I could, trying to ensure that the reading does not become a chore.
How well I have succeeded in this is, of course, for the reader to judge.