contestation
 \kahn-tess-TAY-shun\ |
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noun
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controversy, debate
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The location of the new high school has been a recurrent item of contestation at town meetings.
"Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke told reporters the division of
the [Nelson Mandela] estate … had been accepted by Mandela's family
earlier on Monday with no contestation so far." — Miami Times (Florida), February 5,
2014
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If you guessed that "contestation" is somehow connected to "contest,"
you're right. They're linked both through meaning and through etymology.
"Contest" can be a verb meaning "to dispute," and "contestation"
essentially means "an act, instance, or state of contesting." Both words
can be traced to the Latin verb "contestari," meaning "to call to
witness." "Contestari" itself comes from "testis," a Latin noun meaning
"witness," which is also the source of "attest" ("to bear witness to"),
"testify" ("to bear witness"), and "testimony" ("a declaration made by a
witness"), among others.
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