Etymology

athlete

A1T1H4L1E1T1E1

Today it means: A participant in any of a group of sporting activities including track and field, road running, cross country running and racewalking. Full definition →

Middle English athlete ← Latin āthlēta ← Middle French athlete
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromἀθλητής
  2. Middle French · derived fromathlete
  3. Latin · derived fromāthlēta
  4. Middle English · inherited fromathlete
  5. English todayathlete

From Middle English athlete, from Latin āthlēta (and probably also partly from Middle French athlete), from Ancient Greek ἀθλητής (athlētḗs), from ἀθλέω (athléō, “compete for a prize”), from ἆθλον (âthlon, “prize”) or ἆθλος (âthlos, “competition”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.