varsity

The level of competitiveness varsity was first applied to sports in 1891. Varsity is a clipping of univarsity, a regional pronunciation of university found in slang since the 1700s. The institution for higher education university was borrowed into English from Norman French université around 1300. Université is a direct descendant of Classical Latin ūniversitās, through Old French universitei and Medieval Latin universitas. Its Latin roots are ūni, meaning “one”; versus, meaning “turned” (later borrowed into English meaning “facing”, then “against”); and tās, a noun-forming suffix akin to the “ity” in “ability”. A thing turned into one. Classical Latin ūniversitās means “the whole” or “the entirety of”, as in the later borrowing universe.