Where does “卓球選手” come from?

卓球選手 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 卓球, from Japanese 球, from Middle Chinese 毬.

卓球選手 (Japanese): table tennis player

Definitions

  1. table tennis player

Ancestry of “卓球選手”, step by step

卓球選手 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 卓球

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese卓球table tennis
2Japanesesphere, globe, orb; pitch; vacuum tube, valve
3Middle Chinese

via Japanese 選手

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese選手player, at variety of sports, or games
Every word from Middle Chinese Every word from Japanese Every word from Japanese 卓球
卓球選手 — Etymology, Origin & Word History | Etymology Explorer