contest
English doing what only English can.
Lawyers often contest contest rules.
The sentence describes lawyers frequently challenging the rules of competitions.
Meanings
to challenge, dispute, or compete for
- The losing party contested the election results.
- She contested the will after her father's death.
a competition or organized event in which participants compete for a prize
- The spelling contest drew students from across the state.
- He won a hot-dog-eating contest in his youth.
Word origin
From Latin contestārī ('to call to witness, dispute'), formed from com- ('together') + testārī ('to bear witness'). The original Latin meaning involved formal legal disputes (calling witnesses); the modern verb 'to contest' retains this dispute sense. The noun 'a contest' (competition) developed from the related sense of two parties testing each other.
Fun fact
The Latin root testārī ('to bear witness') connects 'contest' to 'protest', 'attest', 'testify', and even 'testimony.' All these words involve some form of public statement or witnessing — and 'contest' originally meant calling witnesses against an opposing party in a legal dispute.