RIVAL  , one who competes with another, one who strives to out-do or excel another or to gain an

object or end before or in preference to, another . The Latin rivalis, which. was in classical Latin used of a competitor in love, meant by derivation one who used the same brook or stream (rivus) as another, hence a neighbour; thus in the Digest, xliii . 20, i . 26, " si inter rivales, id est qui per eundem rivum aquam ducunt, sit contentio de aquae usu." The term naturally applied more particularly to those who lived on opposite sides of a stream which would be a frequent subject of dispute as to rights .