| 1 | French | athlétique | athletic |
| 2 | Middle French | athletique | — |
| 3 | Latin | āthlēticus | — |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | ἀθλητικός | of or for an athlete, athletic |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | ἀθλητής | a combatant, champion, especially a prizefighter;... |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | ἀθλέω | to contend for a prize, combat, wrestle; to be an... |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | -έω | Used to form verbs from nouns, adjectives and... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -éyeti | Forms causative imperfective verbs from roots;... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -yeti | Creates transitive imperfective verbs from roots |