autopoloist
|au-to-po-lo-ist|
🇺🇸
/ˌɔːtəˈpoʊləɪst/
🇬🇧
/ˌɔːtəˈpəʊləɪst/
player of automobile polo
Etymology
'autopoloist' originates from English, specifically the elements 'auto' (from Greek 'autos'), 'polo' (from Balti 'pulu' via South Asian languages), and the agent suffix '-ist' (from French '-iste' ultimately from Greek/Latin), where 'auto-' meant 'self', 'pulu' meant 'ball', and '-ist' marked an agent or practitioner.
'auto' derives from Greek 'autos'; 'polo' was borrowed into English in the 19th century from Balti 'pulu' (via regional languages), and the compound 'auto-polo' was coined in early 20th-century English to name the automobile variant of polo; adding the agentive suffix '-ist' produced 'autopoloist' to denote a player.
Initially the parts meant 'self' (auto-) and 'ball' (pulu/polo), but combined as 'auto-polo' they named a novel motorized form of polo, and 'autopoloist' came to mean 'a player of automobile polo'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a person who plays auto polo, an early 20th-century sport in which players drove automobiles and used mallets to hit a ball.
She was an autopoloist who competed in several exhibition matches in the 1910s.
Synonyms
Last updated: 2025/11/27 23:56