Field Hockey

It means field hockey: a game, a team, a practice or a fan.

Senders are usually talking about the sport itself: a match this weekend, a training session, a score, a child's school team, a World Cup or Olympic game on TV. Alongside a result it reads as a sports update; alongside “you in?” it is an invitation; after a name it marks that person as a hockey player.

The emoji carries no hidden meaning. Its only real trap is which hockey you picture. Someone in India, the Netherlands or England who sends 🏑 and writes “hockey tonight” means a grass or turf pitch; a Canadian who writes the same word probably meant 🏒 and picked the wrong stick, an easy slip because the two icons often sit close together in the sports section of phone emoji keyboards.

What is field hockey, and where is it big?

An eleven-a-side stick-and-ball game on grass or artificial turf, played worldwide.

Two teams of eleven use sticks with a curved, hooked head to move a small hard ball into the opposing goal. The ball may be played only with the flat side of the stick, and only the goalkeeper, inside the circle they defend, may use feet or body. Modern top-level games run on artificial turf. It is a men's and women's Olympic sport, with leading national teams from India, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Argentina and Britain.

In Britain, India, the Netherlands and Australia the single word “hockey” means this game, and the ice version gets the extra word; in other countries usage varies. In the United States and Canada “hockey” means ice hockey and this sport is “field hockey”; in the US it is best known as a girls' high-school and women's college game. The emoji's official name, field hockey stick and ball, spells out “field”, which keeps it apart from 🏒.