Athleticism

Is it a word? Do you use it in copy outside of quoted material?

An old editor has guard dogs and tanks at the gate watching for "athleticism" in stories. He said athletic ability is not an "ism" such as communism, liberalism, conservatism, nepotism, deism, Catholicism, socialism, etc. Is it coachspeak? An ESPN word? Common enough to be acceptable? A cliche? I'm in the middle of a good debate on the subject.

 

According to both Webster's Third International and the OED, ye olde editor is wrong.

 

Athleticism is a word -- an overused one, perhaps -- but definitely a word. Show it to your editor in the dictionary. It'll be hard for him to argue with that.

 

I was told it was not a word by a news-sider, but showed it to her in the dictionary later and she was pissed. It was the first time I had used the word outside of a quote, but I really haven't used it much since.

 

The Associated Press allowed athleticism to appear in print (and not in a quote) in a May 14 article on Bryan Colangelo:

http://www.baynews9.com/content/40/2007/5/14/249394.html?title=Raptors'%20Colangelo%20Named%20Top%20NBA%20Exec

And the word is indeed in the dictionary, as previous posters have pointed out:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/athleticism

 

Surprised that there was any question it was a word, period.

 

Ev'rybody's talking about
bagism, shagism, dragism, jagism, ragism, tagism
Athleticism, asceticism, this-ism, that-ism.

All we are saying, is give cliches a chance.

 

C'mon, Starman, use the "ism, ism, ism" part. It's the best part.

 

No, the best part is when he yells at the Hare Krishna geeks, and they yell back.

 

Is "spurtability" in the Oxford?

 

edit: spurtabilicism.