With the Olympic Games upon us, its quite interesting to see the origins of the names of some Olympic sports.
The name Olympics comes from where it all started, in Olympia, a district in ancient Greece where athletic contests were held every four years.
Badminton is played with a battledore and shuttlecock. Battledore comes from the Portuguese batedor stick for beating washing and shuttlecock comes from shuttle, the back-and-forth action of the weaving loom and cock from the feathers.
Badminton itself is named after the country seat of the Duke of Beaufort, Badminton House, in Gloucestershire, where the game first became popular.
Tennis comes from the French tenez meaning take heed from the call made by server to opponent.
Taekwondo comes from the Korean tae kicking or destroying with the foot, kwon punching with the fist and do the way so together it means a way of kicking and punching.
Archery comes the Latin arcus bow, equestrian from the Latin equus horse and aquatics derives from the Latin aqua water.
Many of our Olympic sports, appropriately enough, have names that originated in Greece. Cycling comes from kuklos circle, and gymnastics from gumnazein to exercise naked.
Athlete comes from the Greek athlein to contend for a prize from athlon prize. Athlon is used with Greek number prefixes bi (two), tri (three), penta (five) and deca (ten) to make biathlon, triathlon, pentathlon and decathlon.
Happy puzzling!
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