Billiard. What exactly is the definition of this word?

Summary: Find out what the word billiard really means. Are you a pool player? Do you call the game pool or do you ref err to it as pocket billiards?

What is Billiard? I mean what is the true definition? We hear people talk about playing pool or sometimes it is referred to as billiards. I did some research and found that billiards is of course the plural of billiard. The definition to me has always been a ball deflecting off another and striking another. (target) like a Carom. (Three Cushion Billiards) I did a search on Ask dot com. Most of the online dictionaries including Webster's referred to it as the singular of Billiards. The first result on the Ask dot com page defined it as an adjective and stated see also Carom. Below I provided Wikipedia's definition. A billiard is a dynamical system where a particle alternates between motion in a straight line and specular reflections with a boundary. When the particle hits the boundary it reflects from it without loss of speed. This means that if you hit the edge of the one ball with the edge of the cue ball, and then the cue ball travels along the tangent line and strikes the nine ball, you have executed a billiard. Last night in a BCA Pool League match, I had solids (small number balls) and my opponent had stripes. One of my solids was right behind one of his stripes and that particular striped ball was next to the corner pocket. I hit the edge of my solid ball thin and the cue ball rolled into the stripe, putting it in the pocket and then stopped behind my solid ball. I made a billiard on his stripe and executed a safety in the same shot. Cool. My opponent failed to hit one of his stripes on the next shot and I took cue ball in hand and ran the rack. Thanks to a billiard and safety shot, I was able to win the game. Billiard shots will come up quite often if you know what to look for. I wrote this article to help you understand the true meaning of the word billiard. I still think of the above examples as a carom. To Your Run Out Success. Ted