I came across this discussion on a translators' forum, and some people there say that
Uh uh, NEVER use sportsman to mean athlete. Messi and Mayweather are athletes, not sportsmen. )
and
A sportsman in actual usage (not in Wiki cut-n-paste lol) is someone who partakes in outdoor activities, like hunting, boating, fishing, etc…
It is so? In Russian, the generic term for a person engaged in sports is "sportsman", it is a loanword. Is it a "translator's false friend"? Would translating Russian "спортсмен" as "sportsman" instead of "athlete" always be a mistake?
The matter is, Wikipedia does state on its disambiguation page for "Sportsman" that
Sportsman may refer to:
Sportsperson, someone who enjoys sport
Best Answer
I
alwaysoften bristle when I hear people use absolutes such as NEVER or ALWAYS, particularly in ALL CAPS.I do agree with the overall sentiment. When I hear the word athlete sans any additional context, I think of sprinters, gymnasts, and basketball players. So does Google.
When it comes to the word sportsman, I might be more inclined to think of hunters and fisherman, but Google doesn't seem to be so sure. (If we Google outdoor sportsman, however, we can find those fishermen we were expecting to see.)
One obvious exception to the sportsman ≠ athlete argument I immediately thought of was Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. Wikipedia says:
The terms may not be equal, but there are some contexts where there is a lot of overlap. That said, the language might be evolving while SI clings to tradition. In other words, sportsman might have been more closely aligned with athlete 50 years ago than it is today, but the magazine might be reluctant to change the name of its prestigious award.
Bottom line: I think athlete might be the better word in many contexts, but, in answer to your title question:
is: Yes, that can be done.
The dictionary would back both sides of the argument, defining sportsman with some definitions that show it to be just about synonymous with athlete:
while other definitions are more aligned with the hunting, fishing, and boating aspects of the word:
I think those participating in that discussion forum may have found an interesting distinction between the two words; however the assertion:
is not quite true, and fails to see how flexible the English language can be.