Champ

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /t͡ʃæmp/

Definitions

1. A person who wins a competition or contest ; to support or advocate vigorously for a cause or idea
2. Someone who prevails in a challenge or tournament ; to actively defend or promote something with enthusiasm
3. An individual recognized as the best in an event or fight ; to publicly back or fight for a particular cause or belief

Etymology: The word has two unrelated histories that happen to share a spelling, and the more familiar one is the sporting sense. "Champion" came into English from Old French "champiun," which itself came from Medieval Latin "campiō," a word for a combatant who fought in a field, the "camp" or open ground where duels and trials of arms were settled. The Latin "campus" is the same root, so "champion" and "camp" are doublets, two forms of one word that reached English by different routes. The shortened "champ" is a clipping of that noun, and it has been used as a casual name for a winner since the word's usage broadened. The verb "champ" has nothing to do with fields or fighters. Middle English "champen" or "chammen" meant "to bite" or "gnash the teeth," and it may have begun as an imitation of the noisy chewing sound. Its modern sense of chewing vigorously is the same word, which is why a horse champing at its bit and a person champing at the bit, impatient and eager, are both drawing on that old idea of noisy biting.

Synonyms: winner, victor, titleholder

Antonyms: loser, defeated