Olympian

How to spell olympian

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce olympian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does olympian mean?

1. nounA person who competes in the Olympic Games.
2. adjectiveMajestic, superior, or detached in the manner attributed to the gods of Mount Olympus.

Olympian in a sentence

• noun

  The retired olympian now coaches young swimmers at the local club.

• adjective

  The judge listened to the arguments with olympian calm, betraying no opinion.

• noun

  Every olympian in the relay team had trained for years to reach this final.

• adjective

  He surveyed his rivals with olympian disdain from the head of the table.

Where does olympian come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek Olympos, the name of the towering mountain that the ancient Greeks believed was home to their principal gods, and to Olympia, the sacred plain where the original athletic games were held every four years. The Greek adjective Olympios meant 'of Olympus', describing both the dwelling place of the gods and, by extension, anything lofty, majestic, or beyond ordinary human reach. Latin took the word as Olympius, and English absorbed it during the 1500s, at first to describe the heavenly gods and their serene, superior bearing. Only later, as the modern Olympic Games were revived in 1896, did the noun sense of 'a competitor in the Olympic Games' become common. The spelling keeps the Greek 'y' in the middle, a frequent trap for writers who expect an 'i', and the single 'l' surprises those who imagine a double letter.

How the word is built

• Olymp- (from Olympos, the mountain home of the Greek gods, and Olympia, site of the ancient games)
• -ian (adjective/noun suffix meaning 'relating to' or 'one belonging to')