Pedant's Corner: Sportive and Sportif

nickwill
nickwill Posts: 2,735
edited May 2012 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Sportive is an abbreviation of the French word 'cyclosportive' and refers to a cycling event. A 'sportif' is someone who participates in a sport i.e a sportsman or woman.
I've even seen some events described as 'sportifs' by the organisers.
Rant over!
http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/

Comments

  • young dog
    young dog Posts: 64
    Think that wind on Sunday must have got you thinking about sportif riders. Was thinking about you all, we where on a training ride in The Lakes and called in at HQ with some posters.
    Keswick this week.
  • rodgers73
    rodgers73 Posts: 2,626
    Nickwill wrote:
    Rant over!


    Very sportive of you to leave it there :wink:
  • Gizmo_
    Gizmo_ Posts: 558
    Yes, that's what my old cycling mentor Ron Donnay used to say.
    Scott Sportster P45 2008 | Cannondale CAAD8 Tiagra 2012
  • nickwill
    nickwill Posts: 2,735
    Gizmo_ wrote:
    Yes, that's what my old cycling mentor Ron Donnay used to say.
    :)
    http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    Nickwill wrote:
    Sportive is an abbreviation of the French word 'cyclosportive' and refers to a cycling event. A 'sportif' is someone who participates in a sport i.e a sportsman or woman.
    I've even seen some events described as 'sportifs' by the organisers.
    Rant over!

    If we're being a total pedant, un sportif is a male rider, a female rider is une sportive

    But certainly the event is a sportive or cyclosportive

    And as for the grocer's appostrophe in sportif's or sportive's...

    And the people on this forum who don't know the difference between brake and break, or kerb and curb, or tires and tyres...
  • nickwill
    nickwill Posts: 2,735
    andy_wrx wrote:
    Nickwill wrote:
    Sportive is an abbreviation of the French word 'cyclosportive' and refers to a cycling event. A 'sportif' is someone who participates in a sport i.e a sportsman or woman.
    I've even seen some events described as 'sportifs' by the organisers.
    Rant over!

    If we're being a total pedant, un sportif is a male rider, a female rider is une sportive

    But certainly the event is a sportive or cyclosportive

    And as for the grocer's appostrophe in sportif's or sportive's...

    And the people on this forum who don't know the difference between brake and break, or kerb and curb, or tires and tyres...

    Good point on the masculine and feminine variations of the word. Another misspelling that frustrates me is the use of the word lead in place of led. I suspect we might be at the mercy of spell-check here. If I were to say that I led the group up the hill, I would be correct. If I substituted the word lead I would be using the wrong word. The two words seem to be used interchangeably now, particularly in magazines. I promise to make no further contributions to the thread. I will now go and lie down in a darkened room.
    http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    We're just old and grumpy, Nick.

    i fear theirs a hole new interweb generation now of peeps who cant spel or punctuait, and no nuffink of gramer

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