how to refer to someone who practices judo or karate

[BobK]

I don't think that's widely used. There are only six citations for 'judo player(s)' in COCA - and Steve Cohen's sentence is one of them.

That, and Barb's contribution, suggest that it's not commonly used in Am. Eng. But I (and the BBC's Olympics commentators, on both TV and radio) use 'judoka' - although it doesn't appear at all in BNC. (I've rarely met -and only in print - 'karateka').

b

 

[SoothingDave]

Coincidentally, a sportswriter used "judoka" in today's paper.

Otherwise, I had never seen the word used, nor ever needed a word to describe such a person.

 

[BobK]

Yes, it seems to be mainly used in press reports/media commentary (perhaps because of the pressure of word-count).

b

 

[charliedeut]

Curiously, the words in dispute here (karateka and judoka), are commonplace in Spanish (but with spelling adapted to 'judoca' and 'karateca/carateca' most of the times)

charliedeut

 

[BobK]

Hmm, that makes its non-use in Am. Eng. stranger (as I believe Spanish is the second language of the USA - even to the extent that efforts to have English endorsed as the official language have been made, in response to statistics about US-born monoglot Spanish-speakers).

b

 

[konungursvia]

In North America we do use the Japanese loan-words judoka and karateka.

 

[Barb_D]

I'd never seen the word before this thread, and then suddenly, here it is: American judoka Delpopolo fails drugs test - IOC - Yahoo! News

Perhpas the same article that SD referred to.

 

[konungursvia]

And in the Guardian, no less: US judoka Nicholas Delpopolo expelled from Olympics for eating marijuana | Sport | guardian.co.uk