racket: Racket for playing tennis [16] and racket ‘noise’ [16] are unrelated words. The former was borrowed from French raquette, which originally meant ‘palm of the hand’. This goes back via Italian racchetta to Arabic rāhat, a variant of rāha ‘palm of the hand’. The origins of racket ‘noise’ are not known, although the probability is that it started life as a verbal imitation of an uproar.
racket (n.1)
"loud noise," 1560s, perhaps imitative. Klein compares Gaelic racaid "noise." Meaning "dishonest activity" (1785) is perhaps from racquet, via notion of "game," reinforced by rack-rent "extortionate rent" (1590s), from rack (n.1). But it might as well be an extended sense of "loud noise" by way of "noise or disturbance made to distract a pick-pocket's victim."
racket (n.2)
"handled paddle or netted bat used in tennis, etc.;" see racquet.