Until mid-18c. usually in Latin form. In this sense, Old English had plegmann "play-man." Meaning "Anyone trained in exercises of agility and strength" is from 1827. Athlete's foot first recorded 1928, for an ailment that has been around much longer.
"one who contests, a disputant, a litigant," 1660s, from contestant (adj.), 1660s, from French contestant, present participle of contester (see contest (v.)). Revived and popularized 1861, when it became a journalist's term for the combatants on either side in the U.S. Civil War.
early 15c., contencios, "characterized by contention;" c. 1500, "quarrelsome, apt to contend," from Latin contentiosus "obstinate, quarrelsome," from contentionem (nominative contentio) "a vigorous struggling, a contest, a fight," noun of action from past-participle stem of contendere (see contend). Related: Contentiously; contentiousness.
"person who disregards laws," 1924, from scoff (v.) + law (n.). The winning entry (from among more than 25,000) in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally. The $200 prize was shared by two contestants who sent in the word separately: Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler.
Similar attempts did not stick, such as pitilacker (1926), winning entry in a contest by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to establish a scolding word for one who deliberately mistreats animals (submitted by Mrs. M. McIlvaine Bready of Mickleton, N.J.).
mid-14c., disesen, "to make uneasy, trouble; inflict pain," a sense now obsolete; late 14c. as "to have an illness or infection;" late 15c. in the transitive sense of "to infect with a disease, make ill;" from disease (n.). Tyndale (1526) has Thy doughter is deed, disease not the master where KJV has trouble not (Luke viii.49).
early 14c., "a quarrel, dispute, disagreement" (now archaic), from Old French debat, from debatre(see debate (v.)). Sense of "contention by argument" is from late 14c., that of "a formal dispute, a debating contest, interchange of arguments in a somewhat formal manner" is perhaps from early 15c.
"coughing illness," a name given to various diseases involving interference at the glottis with respiration," 1765, from obsolete verb croup "to cry hoarsely, croak" (1510s), probably echoic. This was the local name of the disease in southeastern Scotland, given wide currency by Dr. Francis Home (1719-1813) of Edinburgh in his 1765 treatise on it. Related: Croupy.
