trophy: [16] A trophy is etymologically something awarded to commemorate the enemy’s ‘turning round’ and running away. The word comes via French trophée and Latin trophaeum from Greek trópaion ‘monument to the enemy’s defeat’. This was a noun use of the adjective tropaíos ‘of turning’, a derivative of tropé ‘turning’, hence ‘turning back the enemy’ (source also of English tropic). => tropic
trophy (n.)
1510s, "a spoil or prize of war," from Middle French trophée (15c.) from Latin trophaeum "a sign of victory, monument," originally tropaeum, from Greek tropaion "monument of an enemy's defeat," noun use of neuter of adjective tropaios "of defeat, causing a rout," from trope "a rout," originally "a turning" (of the enemy); see trope. In ancient Greece, spoils or arms taken in battle and set up on the field and dedicated to a god. Figurative extension to any token or memorial of victory is first recorded 1560s. As "a symbolic representation of a classical trophy" from 1630s. Trophy wife attested by 1984.
