Billiard

[Maroseika]

According to one of the sources Fr. billiard, originally the wooden cue stick, from O.Fr. bille "stick of wood," from Gaul. *bilia "tree."
However others sources says billiard derivates from French bille - small ball.
Or maybe these two versions are not contradictory, because ball goes back to PIE base *bhel- "to swell", i.e. also to something long and thin.

Anyway, what exactly bille meant in Old-French?

 

[Whodunit]

The "Dictionnaire d'étymologie française" says the following:

BILLE it. biglia, esp. billa, du mbh bickel, osselet, dé. — D billard.
Le mot bille, pièce de bois, d'où billot, doit avoir une autre origine. Chevallet cite irland. bille, tronc d'arbre, tronçon de bois; bret. bill, pill.

Do you need a translation?

Not very helpful, though.

 

[Maroseika]

The "Dictionnaire d'étymologie française" says the following:



Do you need a translation?

Not very helpful, though.

As far as I understand it says that bille - ball and bille - stick have differeing origin being homonyms?