entry
tournament
/ˈtɔɹnəmənt/Organized competition involving multiple contestants or matches
From O.French tornement / tornoier (Jousting).
from Old French tornement "contest between groups of knights on horseback for a prize of valor" (12c.)
from Old French tornoiement (Modern French tournoiement)
Word Ancestry
from Old French tornement "contest between groups of knights on horseback for a prize of valor" (12c.)
from Old French tornoiement (Modern French tournoiement)
Picture a medieval field crowded with armored riders, banners snapping overhead, and several groups of knights charging at once—not the tidy one-on-one duel we usually imagine. Around the 12th century, Old French called this a tornement, from tornoier, “to joust” or “take part in tournaments”; English borrowed the word as tournement around c. 1200. A joust was a private argument conducted at lance-point, one knight against another, while a tournament was the noisy team sport: cavalry units colliding in a carefully staged rehearsal for war. By 1761, the word had escaped the battlefield and could describe contests of skill generally, from horsemen spearing hanging rings to modern sports brackets. So when a chess player enters a tournament, the language still carries a faint echo of hooves, pennants, and a whole squadron charging—not merely two people settling a score.
The Story
Picture a medieval field crowded with armored riders, banners snapping overhead, and several groups of knights charging at once—not the tidy one-on-one duel we usually imagine. Around the 12th century, Old French called this a tornement, from tornoier, “to joust” or “take part in tournaments”; English borrowed the word as tournement around c. 1200. A joust was a private argument conducted at lance-point, one knight against another, while a tournament was the noisy team sport: cavalry units colliding in a carefully staged rehearsal for war. By 1761, the word had escaped the battlefield and could describe contests of skill generally, from horsemen spearing hanging rings to modern sports brackets. So when a chess player enters a tournament, the language still carries a faint echo of hooves, pennants, and a whole squadron charging—not merely two people settling a score.
Modern Usage
An enthusiastic or highly skilled sports-oriented person, according to a slang usage
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary entry using tournament as an adjective for an intensely sports-focused or legitimately skilled person
Kin & Kindred
From 'tornement / tornoier'·Jousting, tilting, or a contest among mounted knights
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary