sport

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /spɔːt/, US /spɔːrt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sporte,^[2][3] a shortening of disport (“pastime, amusement”),^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman disport, from Old French desport “pleasure, recreation”,^[2][3] from desporter (“to divert, amuse, please”), literally “to carry away” the mind from serious matters,^[2] from des- (“away”) and porter (“to carry”),^[2] from Latin portāre (“to carry”).^[2][6] It is related to disport and to port³, “bearing”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pleasant pastime, amusement: the verb about 1400, “to take pleasure, amuse oneself”,^[2] and the noun about 1400 in Barnhart^[3] and the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first example is from about 1440.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Sport meant any kind of entertainment, and only came to mean physical activities with rules at the end of the Middle Ages, more formal games following in the 18th century.^[6] Amusing oneself by active exercise in the open air is from the late 15th century,^[2] and a game involving physical exercise from the 1520s,^[2] or 1523 in Barnhart.^[3] Hunting and taking game is from 1653.^[7] In the 16th and 17th centuries it could also mean love-making.^[2] In sport, “in jest”, is from the mid-15th century.^[2] The sport of kings (1660s) first meant war-making, later hunting and horse racing.^[2][6] Of persons it meant a laughing-stock from the 1690s,^[2] a gambler on races by 1861,^[2] and a lively, good fellow from 1881, as in be a sport by 1913.^[2] The verb “to display, show off” is from 1712, “to wear” from 1778.^[2] A sport of nature (1635), translating Latin lūsus nātūrae, was shortened in biology to sport, a spontaneous mutation, in 1842.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – disport.^[3]
• c. 1400 – a pastime.^[2][3]
• 1523 – a game involving exercise.^[3]
• 1653 – hunting.^[7]
• 1660s – sport of kings.^[2]
• 1712 – verb, to show off.^[2]
• 1842 – a mutation.^[3]
• 1861 – a gambler.^[2]
• 1881 – a good fellow.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An athletic activity governed by rules, often played competitively.
2. An active pastime; recreation.
3. Jest; fun: in sport.
4. An object of mockery: the sport of fortune.
5. (informal) A person who takes defeat or teasing well.
6. In biology, an organism showing a marked mutation.

Verb

1. To wear or display proudly.
2. To play or frolic.
3. To mutate.

Word family

• sportful
• sportfully
• sportfulness
• sportless
• unsported

Related words

• disport
• port
• deport
• sportsman
• sporty

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press