Sport & ContestGreek → English
Decathlon
/dɪˈkæθlɒn/noun
A men's track and field event of ten disciplines held over two days, scored on a points table.
The Greek roots
δέκα
déka
ten
ἆθλον
âthlon
contest, prize
Literally: “ten contests”
The story of the word
Built for the Stockholm Olympics of 1912, where the ten-event contest took its modern shape. Greek games had a pentathlon of five events and nothing longer. An athlon was the prize as much as the struggle for it, which is why an athlete is literally someone competing for a prize rather than someone who trains.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → modern coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1912
Same family
pentathlonheptathlonbiathlontriathlon
In a sentence
He led after the first day and lost the decathlon on the pole vault.
Nobody wins a decathlon by being brilliant at one thing.