Tennis or badminton equipment with a handle and strung head, or loud unpleasant noises; also slang for illegal or dishonest schemes.
From Arabic 'rahat' (palm of the hand), which entered English through Italian 'racchetta' in the 1500s during trade. The 'illegal scheme' meaning developed in 1920s American slang, likely from the loud noise of organized crime.
The shift from 'sports equipment' to 'criminal scheme' happened in 1920s Prohibition-era America—people literally said crime syndicates made too much 'racket,' and the word stuck as slang for any shady business.
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