'bagataway' originates from the Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin) word often recorded as 'baaga'adowe' or similar forms, where the root is associated with playing or striking a ball.

'bagataway' was recorded in various spellings (e.g., 'baggataway', 'bagattaway') in early French and English colonial accounts describing Indigenous ball games. Europeans later adopted the French term 'la crosse', and 'lacrosse' became the dominant English name, while 'bagataway' remained as an older or ethnographic term.

Initially it referred broadly to Indigenous stick-and-ball games; over time its use declined in everyday English and the meaning narrowed or was replaced by 'lacrosse' in most contexts; today it is chiefly of historical or cultural/ethnographic interest.