Umpire

Ah yes. The umpire. The bane of every sports fan, unless they are making calls for your team that is. So where does that term come from?

Well in old French the numpire was a man who judged trial by combat. Numpire means “non-peer” which basically meant they were supposed to be impartial to the combatants.

The term entered English in the 15th century with the “n” dropping back to the article making it “an umpire.”