Sport & ContestGreek → English
Athleticism
/æθˈlɛtɪsɪzəm/noun
Physical power, speed and coordination of the kind trained for competition.
The Greek roots
ἆθλον
âthlon
prize of a contest
Literally: “prize-competing quality”
Follow a root:ἆθλον10 words
The story of the word
An ἀθλητής was not a person who exercised but a person who competed for a prize, ἆθλον, and the related ἆθλος meant the contest itself. Herakles performed twelve of them, which is why his labours are ἆθλοι. English took athlete from Latin in the fifteenth century, then Victorian schoolmasters built athleticism to name the whole cult of games and muscular character.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
athletedecathlonpentathlonbiathlon
In a sentence
Her athleticism made a hard save look routine.