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Glite Dictionary
🥇 A medal winner ⛳ Best golf scorer
medalist

medalist

1 4.4
A player with the lowest total score in a stroke play golf tournament
  • noun
  • /ˈmɛdəlɪst/
  • Jargon
translation icon : medallista (golf)
  • J.B. Holmes emerged as the medalist at the stroke-play event, finishing with a score of -2.
  • Gold medalist
  • Silver medalist
  • Olympic gold medalist

Examples

  • Last year's tournament had Jeff Freeman as the medalist, recognized for finishing with the lowest score.

  • Diego Ventureira was the medalist of the Division II championship, achieving the best score in the tournament.

  • I've never hit a silver medalist in the knee with a club.

    Blog text (32)

  • Section: Bruce Medalist

    Academic text (1990)

Synonyms

champ
vsmedalist
  • Informal
278 2.7

A person who wins first place in a competition

is the specific golf term for the player with lowest stroke play score
medal winner
vsmedalist
  • Jargon
2 3.4

A golfer who has the lowest score in medal play and comes first in the tournament

is the formal golf term for that tournament winner

Surface Forms

medalist singular
medalists plural

Morphology

medalist = medal (semi-transparent) = medal + ist

Formed from 'medal' + '-ist' but the golf sense depends on the specialized term 'medal' (stroke-play), so the meaning is domain-specific rather than the general 'award receiver'.

Etymology

Medalist comes from medal (from Italian medaglia, a 'small metal coin' or award) and the ending -ist means 'person who'. In golf, the player with the lowest total score is called the medalist because that player would be the one 'receiving the medal' for the best score.