sportive
adjective
definition 1: fun-loving; playful.
example: He dared not raise the question of marriage, for she was in a sportive mood and would not take him seriously.
definition 2: of, relating to, or fond of sports; athletic.
example: She is more interested in the sportive aspects of judo than its use in combat.
Words at Work
The creature depicted below belongs to a nocturnal genus of primates (lepilemuridae) commonly called “sportive lemurs.” Initially, I’d hoped the name “sportive” arose from this animal group’s tendency to leap and frolic (to disport themselves) through the treetops of Madagascar all night, and that therefore definition 1, which reflects the earliest meaning of “sport,” was the pertinent one. However, travel publisher and writer Karen Bradt, in her 2012 book Madagascar comments, “Sportive lemurs mostly spend the day in tree-holes from which they peer drowsily. Their name is something of a misnomer as they are rarely particularly energetic, even at night.”
Ghostly, Drowsy Jocks?
According to primate specialist Matthew Richardson, “sportive” refers to these lemurs’ “interesting habit of adopting a boxer-like stance when threatened.” They sit up on their well-developed haunches, as if ready to throw punches (http://www.arkive.org/northern-sportive-lemur/lepilemur-septentrionalis/). The sportive lemurs’ resemblance to athletes makes definition 2 the more likely intended meaning.
About the word “lemur,” however, we can be scarily accurate with the etymology, for “lemur” derives from the Latin “lemures,” a plural noun that denotes frightening spirits of dead ancestors. There apparently was no singular form of “lemures.” They must have haunted in groups. Linnaeus himself endowed the lemur with its taxonomic name, making the word singular by what linguists call “back formation” in 1758.
