"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure." American English uses the term "sports" to refer to this general type of recreational activity, whereas other regional dialects use the singular "sport".
The Persian word for "sport" is based on the root bord, meaning "winning". The Chinese term for "sport," tiyu 体育; 體育 connotes "physical training". The Modern Greek term for sport is Αθλητισμός athlitismos, directly cognate with the English terms "athlete" and "athleticism."
The oldest definition of sport in English 1300 is of anything humans find amusing or entertaining. Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. Roget's defines the noun sport as an "Activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation. An example of a more sharply defined meaning is "an athletic activity where one competitor or a team of competitors plays against another competitor or group of competitors with a conclusive method of scoring...not determined by a judge."
