- trophy (n.)
- 1510s, "a spoil or prize of war," from Middle French trophée (15c.) from Latin trophaeum "a sign of victory, monument," originally tropaeum, from Greek tropaion "monument of an enemy's defeat," noun use of neuter of adjective tropaios "of defeat," from trope "a rout," originally "a turning" (of the enemy); see trope. Figurative extension to any token or memorial of victory is first recorded 1560s. Trophy wife attested by 1984.