Rivalling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To strive to equate or exceed another in quality or performance while engaging in rivalry
2. To contest against someone in an effort to prove superiority in skills or results
3. Engaging in competition to be equal to or better than another party

Etymology: The Latin "rīvālis" literally meant someone who uses the same stream as another, from "rīvus" ("stream") and the suffix "-alis". Neighbours who drew water from the same brook were, in a sense, competitors for it, and that shared resource gave the word its path toward modern rivalry. English took the noun "rival" directly from Latin as a learned borrowing, so the sense of contesting with another person came with it from the start. The verb "rivalling" is simply "rival" with the ending added to show ongoing action, so it describes striving to match or surpass someone else. The stream origin is still visible in the word's structure: the root "rīvus" is the same one that gives English "rivulet" and "river" through other routes, though the connection to "rival" is one of shared Latin ancestry rather than direct descent.

Synonyms: competing, contending

Antonyms: cooperating