athletics

Itasan · Post by **Itasan** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 9:20 am

Is this understanding correct?
'sports such as running and jumping'
1. athletics - BrE
2. track and field - AmE
BTW, LDCE says:
athlectics (2) AmE physical activities such as
sports and exercise
I wonder what is the British equivalent.
Thank you.

tigertiger · Post by **tigertiger** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:52 am

BrE athletics is the equivalent of track and field.

Athletic could be used for any physical activity, especially strenous, if undertaken by a normally sedentary person.

e.g. 'You ran for the bus? That's a bit athletic isn't it?'

'Play football on Sunday? That's too athletic for me'

There is also the vernacular use/misuse.
e.g. Bedroom athletics.

Itasan · Post by **Itasan** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:49 am

LOL I understand.
This 'athletic' is an adjective, right?
I wonder if it is used in the same way in the US.
Thanks also for the valuable sample sentences.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 6:33 am

Itasan, look more closely at the words used in the definitions and extrapolate from them (the LDCE is after all a British effort/publication):

athlectics (2) AmE physical activities such as
sports and exercise

As a BrE speaker I'd therefore be saying things like this:

I need to...
...do some(/)more sport(s)/a sport (maybe athletics?)
...start e.g. karate (again) ('athletics' OK, but > running? sprinting? hurdling? training for the 1500m?)
...join a sports club (versus 'the athletics club (again)'?)
...get some(/)more exercise (*athletics)

That is, there are specific (named) sports, sport(s) in general (e.g. I haven't decided which to do yet), and exercise in general (uncount). (Specific exercises have specific names (push ups, sit ups, bench presses etc) and might be referred to collectively as a workout, exercises, callisthenics, weight-training, aerobics etc, depending on whether just bodyweight versus weights are involved, or music and dance steps etc).

Itasan · Post by **Itasan** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:16 am

Thank you.
If 'extrapolate' means 'to make a guess', I don't
want that in a DICTIONARY. I would expect
preciseness in a dictionary. If it's a guess, they
should say so. Sorry I'm not blaming anyone
but the dictionary if it is making a guess.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:20 am

No, it doesn't mean 'to take a (wild) guess or wild stab at', it means to confidently generate examples yourself (when the selection of examples and collocations in the dictionary is limited at the noun entries for 'athletics', then 'sport' and 'exercise' and therefore forces you to), based upon the grammatical information and CAREFULLY CHOSEN words in the definition/defining vocabulary (such words can usually be taken to be productive synonyms for the word being defined, at least in the regional variety to which the dictionary specifcally caters).

Here's an example of "extrapolating" in action:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 5764#15764

Give the LDCE's lexicographers more credit, why don't you!