olympiad
UK /əˈlɪmpiæd/ · US /oʊˈlɪm.pi.æd/ noun
Forms olympiads Ol.
- noun A four-year period, particularly (historical) those based on Hippias's computations of the ancient Olympic Games which placed Coroebus's footrace victory in 776 BCE and (sports) those based on the modern Summer Olympic Games first held in 1896. “Ancient sources variously dated the founding of Rome to the 38th year before the first Olympiad, the third or fourth year of the sixth Olympiad, the first year of the seventh or eighth Olympiad, or the fourth year of the 12th Olympiad.”
- noun (sports, sometimes proscribed) Synonym of Olympic Games: an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games.
- noun (by extension, usually preceded by descriptive words) A competition aspiring to the importance of the Olympic Games or considered similar to them, especially one occurring at 4-year intervals, representing a national or international range of amateur student rather than professional adult competition, and/or requiring the highest level of ability in the field for success. “the International Mathematical Olympiad... the Science Olympiad... the International Science Olympiads... the Women's Chess Olympiad...”
Synonyms
Etymology
From the plural forms Olimpiades, Olympiades, and Olympiadiz of Middle English Olimpias and Olympias (“ancient Olympic Games, 4-year period between these games, intense battle or competition”) from Middle French Olympiade and Old French Olympiade (“ancient Olympic games, 4-year period between these games”), from Latin Olympias (“4-year period between Olympic Games”) whose genitive form was Olympiados or Olympiadis), from Ancient Greek Ὀλυμπῐᾰ́ς (Olumpĭắs, “ancient Olympic Games, 4-year period between these games”) whose plural form was Ὀλυμπῐᾰ́δες (Olumpĭắdes), from Ὀλυμπῐ́ᾱ (Olumpĭ́ā, “Olympia”), the town in ancient Greece where the games were held, + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, a suffix forming feminine adjectives or nouns), from either Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or related to Mount Olympus, Olympian, the Olympian Zeus”) or Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).
The use of olympiad for academic competitions aspiring to the level of the Olympic Games was first popularized by the International Mathematical Olympiad, a calque of its Romanian name Olimpiada Internațională de Matematică.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A period of four years, by which the ancient Greeks reckoned time, being the interval from one celebration of the Olympic games to another, beginning with the victory of Coroebus in the foot race, which took place in the year 776 b.c.; as, the era of the olympiads.
Etymology [L. olympias, -adis, Gr. olympiade.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “olympiad”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details