Competitiveness comes from competitive + -ness. Competitive ultimately from Latin competere ('to strive together for'), from com- ('together') + petere ('to seek'). The historical trail runs through competere in Latin and petere in Latin. Morphologically, competitiveness is transparent: it draws on competitive + -ness. Used as a noun, competitiveness now means "the quality of being able to compete successfully or eager to win", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as competitive, compete, competition, and competitor. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.