Sport & ContestGreek → English
Olympic
/əˈlɪmpɪk/adjective
Relating to the international athletic games held every four years.
The Greek roots
Ὀλυμπία
Olympía
Olympia, sanctuary in Elis
Literally: “of Olympia”
Follow a root:Ὀλυμπία3 words
The story of the word
The games were held at Olympia in the western Peloponnese, not on Mount Olympus in the far north, though both places belonged to Zeus and the confusion is old. Greeks counted time in olympiads, four-year blocks running from the traditional first games in 776 BC, which gave scattered city-states one shared calendar. Pierre de Coubertin took the name back in 1896, when the first modern games opened in Athens.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
OlympiadOlympianOlympus
In a sentence
Two of the Olympic records set that week still stand.
He trained for six years for one Olympic final.