Jeu de paume was originally a French game similar to lawn tennis, but played without racquets. The players hit the ball with their hands as in volleyball. "Jeu de paume" literally means: game of palm (of the hand). After some time gloves replaced bare hands. But even when bats, and finally racquets, became standard equipment for the game, the name did not change. It became known as "tennis" in English (see History of tennis), and later "real tennis" after lawn tennis became more popular than the parent game.