"Sport" vs "Sports" Origin

In British schools, the teachers and children sometimes organise/participate in a 'sports day'. A long-running, British TV panel-game: 'A Question of Sport'. The usage varies - a person may be regarded either as 'good at sports', or 'good at sport'.

"sport" or "sports" is a tangled problem. "sport" has several meanings. As referring to physical activity there is some difference in usage between BrE and AmE. Actually only usage notes of dictionaries can give some help.

But I can't imagine that things are as simple as OALD says (sport BrE, sports AmE). Usage in BrE and in AmE probably vary according to region and individual usage and probably usage is changing.

sport no. 2 can be used for a person as in "He's a good sport".

sport no. 3 can mean fun or joke.

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/sport_1?q=sport

There is also the problem of compound words of the type sportsman, sports car and sport shirt.

This is really old, but if you go to Cambridge Dictionary 'sports' is the adjective (only before noun) and 'sport' is the noun. So, 'sports day' but 'do you like sport?'. That's for BrE, I've got no idea about AmE.

sports

adjective [before noun] UK
​relating to ​sport:

Sports ​equipment.

It's the ​school sports ​day on ​Monday.

sport

noun A1 [U] UK

all ​types of ​physical ​activity that ​people do to ​keep ​healthy or for ​enjoyment:

She used to do/​play a lot of sport when she was ​younger.

The simplest answer is that in US english, we use the noun “sport” to talk about any contest or game that entail physical activity. Hence “sports" is the plural form of the noun. That is how we talk about basketball, football and baseball as a group. But in British English, you would use the noun “sport” to talk about the same group of activities. Look at the BBC News website at the top menu you can see “Sport” for the news about Football, Cricket, Tennis, Golf and so on. Here are some examples to illustrate I don't like sports.(US) I don't like sport. (UK) Do you do any sport? Do you play any sports? You can also use "sport" as an adjective. sport fisherman. As a verb, “sport” meaning to wear something. It is mostly used when someone is wearing something that draws attention. She is sporting a glamorous abbaya.