sumo

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 相撲 (sumō, “sumo wrestling, sumo wrestler”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Japanese in 1603 in the “Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam”, where it is glossed as wrestling,^[2] and ultimately from an obsolete Japanese verb meaning to resist, fight or wrestle.^[2][7] The American Heritage Dictionary analyses it as a compound of elements meaning "mutually" and "to rush at",^[8] and Etymonline glosses the Japanese as "to compete".^[9] The OED notes that the spelling “smoo” reflects the Japanese pronunciation with a devoiced u, which English speakers often do not hear.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wrestler in sumo: 1864, in the Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1880,^[9][3] and Barnhart to 1893.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The name of the sport itself is recorded from 1893, in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society,^[2][4] and the OED describes it as wrestling traditionally between very heavy men, in which a bout is won by forcing the opponent out of the ring.^[2] The wrestler is now usually a sumo wrestler, and the OED also records sumotori and rikishi for him.^[2] Evans quotes American press uses of sumo and sumotori from 1992, also as an attribute.^[10]

Timeline

• 1864 – a sumo wrestler.^[2]
• 1893 – the Japanese style of wrestling.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Japanese style of wrestling between very heavy men, in which a wrestler wins by pushing his opponent out of the ring or making him touch the ground with any part of the body except the soles of the feet.^{[5][3][11][2]}
2. A wrestler in this sport; a sumo wrestler.^[2][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Evans, Tom (1997), A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press