Olympiad

== English == === 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. === Pronunciation === (General American) IPA(key): /əˈlɪmpiæd/, /-əd/, /oʊˈlɪmpiˌæd/ (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈlɪmpiæd/, /-əd/ Hyphenation: Olym‧pi‧ad === Noun === Olympiad (plural Olympiads) 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. (sports, sometimes proscribed) Synonym of Olympic Games: an instance of the ancient or modern Olympic Games. (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. ==== Usage notes ==== The forms 1st Olympiad, second Olympiad, Third Olympiad, etc. can be used for either the ancient or modern games. Some sources discuss the ancient Olympiads as 5-year cycles but only do so using inclusive counting; the actual span of known games was always a four-year period. Because of its close association with the Olympic Games, Olympiad is generally capitalized although some writers prefer lower-case olympiad, particularly for generic four-year periods or general discussions of international academic competitions. The ancient olympiads are usually written in the form Olympiad 1, Ol. 2, etc. with Arabic numerals. They may be variously abbreviated with their years, with those of Olympiad 3 being variously written as Ol. 3/1, Ol. 3/₂, Ol. 3, 3, Ol. 3. 4. in different scholarly sources. There are some 2nd century Roman inscriptions which date the Olympics from a new epoch after Hadrian's refurbishment of the Olympieion in 131 CE (Ol. 227) but this was never in general use. The convention is usually to date the ancient years from the midsummer Olympic contests, so that the first months of 1 CE were in the fourth year of Olympiad 194 and the latter months in the first year of Olympiad 195. This is often simplified to the point of using July 1 in the Julian or Gregorian calendar as the beginning of each Olympiad rather than using the various 12 and 13-month lunisolar or solar calendars of the governments controlling Olympia during each of the specific games. The modern olympiads are officially written in the form the I Olympiad, the II Olympiad, etc. with Roman numerals. They are not typically abbreviated or used to number individual years. The modern olympiads are only used in reference to the Summer Olympics and not commonly used for any other purpose; even the Winter Olympics are not reckoned using olympiads but are simply counted as they occur. Modern olympiads are dated from the beginning of the Gregorian calendar year in which the Summer Olympics occur: the I Olympiad began on 1 January 1896 and ended on 31 December 1899; this system continues to run even when the games are not held (as during World War II) or delayed (as during the coronavirus epidemic). ==== Alternative forms ==== Ol. (abbreviation) olympiad (alternative case, typically in generic uses) ==== Synonyms ==== (4-year periods): See quadrennium ==== Coordinate terms ==== Asiad Paralympiad Spartakiad ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === References ===