Sport & ContestGreek → English
Acrobatics
/ˌækrəˈbætɪks/noun
Spectacular feats of balance, agility and coordination.
The Greek roots
ἄκρος
ákros
topmost, tip
βαίνειν
baínein
to walk, to go
Literally: “tiptoe-walking”
The story of the word
Younger than acrobat: the plural was built inside English in the nineteenth century from the adjective acrobatic. The Greek pieces stay the same, ἄκρος and βαίνειν, and the original ἀκροβάτης went up on tiptoe or along a stretched rope. The word now covers anything nimble, including verbal acrobatics and financial ones, neither of which involves a rope.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
acrobatacropolisacrophobia
In a sentence
The acrobatics in the second act got a longer ovation than the singing.