In case you hadn't heard, the Olympic Games open today. Anyone looking at the Olympics realizes that sport is a very serious business indeed, but “sport” was originally the equivalent of “fun”, and didn't necessarily involve physical exertion. It was a shortened form of “disport” (a pastime), from the Latin dis (away) and portare (carry), the idea being that amusement carried one away from serious or sad occupations, in much the same way that a “diversion” is literally something that “turns you away” from other matters.
"Is there going to be any sport today ?" (approx. quote) asks someone from Mr. Darcy's and Mr. Bingley's entourage, in the 1995 BBC series "Pride and Prejudice", referring to some bird hunting.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I got an idea that, historically, "sport" was a more general term. In fact, even in countries which picked up the modern term only, people would still colloquially (and ironically) call "sport" all sorts of dubious/questionable activities, susceptible of bringing some sort of benefits/satisfactions to their "practitioners".