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Glite Dictionary
🏺 Greek fighting sport ⚔️ Intense struggle 🥊 Combat sport
pankration

pankration

1 9.9
An ancient Greek sport that mixed wrestling and boxing with almost no rules
  • noun
  • /pæŋˈkreɪʃən/
  • Archaic
translation icon : pankration
  • In the ancient Greek Olympics, athletes would often compete in pankration, showcasing their skills in both wrestling and boxing.

Examples

  • The only human sport that was practically unlimited was the Pankration.

    Blog text (13)

  • In the Roman context, the heavy athletic disciplines were wrestling, boxing, and the pankration, a brutal blend of wrestling and boxing.

    Academic text (2011)

  • For more on the pankration, see n. 58 below.

    Academic text (2011)

  • See Gardiner, "Wrestling," 19-21, with sources on the pankration.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Competitors in pankration used a mix of techniques to gain the upper hand in the fight, making it one of the most challenging events.

  • To master pankration, fighters needed to be proficient in various combat styles, including both striking and grappling techniques.

Surface Forms

pankration singular
pankrations plural

Morphology

pankration = pan + kration

The word is a loan from ancient Greek referring to a specific athletic contest; its Greek components are not productive or transparent to the average learner, so the meaning is not derivable by straightforward English morphological rules.

Etymology

Pankration comes from the Greek parts pan- 'all' and kratos 'strength'. In ancient Greece this sport mixed boxing and wrestling and allowed almost every move, so the name shows it was an 'all-power' or all-in fight.