sportsman

sports +‎ -man.

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

sportsman (plural sportsmen)

1. (UK) A man who engages in sports; an athlete.
   • 2014, Libor Flemr, Jiří Němec, Kateřina Kudláčková, editors, Physical activity in science and practice: Conference Proceedings | In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University in Prague [Prague, 19-21 June 2013], page 237:

     On the contrary, the difference between the worse male and female sportsmen was 54 ms. Among the male sportsmen [...]. Among the female sportsmen [...]

   • 2008, Atko Viru, Adaptation in Sports Training, Informa Healthcare USA, New York, p. 227 (Chapter 9: Gender Differences in Training Effects, sub-chapter Metabolic Capacities in male and female Athletes):

     In both cases the female sportsmen were Nordic skiers.

2. (dated) A man who engages in country sports, such as hunting or fishing.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     At last extinguishing the fire, he took the idol up very unceremoniously, and bagged it again in his grego pocket as carelessly as if he were a sportsman bagging a dead woodcock.

3. A man who exhibits good sportsmanship, or who exhibits sportsmanship as specified (good or bad).

• sportsmanlike
• sportsman's bet
• sportsmanship

• sportswoman

sportsman m (plural sportsmeni)

1. Alternative form of sportsmen