Sporting

How to spell sporting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sporting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sporting mean?

1. adjectiveConnected with or used for athletic games and physical sport.
2. adjectiveWilling to behave fairly and generously, especially toward an opponent.

Sporting in a sentence

• The town built a new sporting complex with a pool and a track.

• It was very sporting of her to lend the rival team a spare kit.

• His sporting achievements filled an entire wall of trophies.

• He took the loss in a sporting manner and shook every hand.

Where does sporting come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows from the noun and verb 'sport', which itself is a shortened form of the older 'disport'. English took 'disport' from Anglo-Norman French 'desporter', meaning 'to carry away' or 'to divert', built from the Latin 'dis-' (away) and 'portare' (to carry). The original idea was of carrying the mind away from work and worry, so to amuse or entertain oneself. By the 1400s the clipped form 'sport' was common, and the meaning narrowed over the centuries from general pastimes toward athletic games and contests. The adjective 'sporting' appears from the 1600s, first describing anything connected with sport, and later picking up the figure-of-speech sense of fair-minded generosity, as when one gives an opponent a 'sporting chance'. The familiar 'portare' root also survives in 'transport', 'export', and 'porter', which can help anchor the single 't' and the plain '-ing' ending.

How the word is built

• sport (from disport: to amuse oneself)
• -ing (adjective suffix)