Other forms: trophies
A trophy is the big shiny cup the winning team lifts over their heads. Lift the trophy, a trophy cabinet, the trophy was presented.
Most are held rather than kept — the winners return them the following year, and what they take home is a replica. Trophy wife and trophy hunting use the word for something displayed rather than earned. Note that the Greek meant a monument raised where the enemy turned and fled.
1nountrophyA cup or prize given to a winner.
“The captain lifted the trophy as the crowd cheered.”
trophy is a prize.
Greek tropaion was a monument raised where the enemy turned in flight, from trope, a turning. Tropic comes from the same turning.
Ancient Greek
τρόπαιον — monument of an enemy's defeat
Latin
trophaeum — a sign of victory, a monument
Middle French
trophée
English, today
trophy
Built from
From Middle French trophée, from Latin trophaeum (“a sign of victory, a monument”), tropaeum, from Ancient Greek τρόπαιον (“monument of an enemy's defeat”), from neuter of τροπαῖος (“of defeat”), from τροπή (“a rout, a turning of an enemy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA