Is 「ごとと」 used as a particle or just plain word?

Question

I wonder what does 「ごとと」 does in this sentence

そもそも陸上部は恋愛ごとと断絶していたのに

I've tried to use Jisho.org but to no avail, there are no definition of it which are relevant to the content of the sentence.

Answer 1

In your sentence, 「恋愛ごとと」 consists of following parts: 恋愛 + ごと + と
And ごと comes from こと(事), which means anything related to the noun before ごと。In this sentence, 「恋愛ごと」 means anything related to love affairs.

Another example,

• 人ごととは思えない (I don't think it's an affair of other people), 人ごと is often written as 他人事
• 私事(わたくしごと) personal matter, personal concern: 私事に立ち入る話を中断する (interrupt a personal conversation)

Answer 2

You are parsing that part incorrectly. There is no such word 「ごとと」.

It should be parsed as:

「[恋愛]{れんあい}ごと + と + 断絶していた」

「恋愛ごと」 means "love-related matters". You will encounter this usage of 「ごと」 quite often.

See definition 二-12-㋐ in : https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BA%8B-502856#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88

「と」 is of course a particle.

"even though the Track & Field team was severed from love-related matters in the first place"

Answer 3

I would translate 恋愛ごとと断絶していた as "stayed away from romantic matters."

恋愛ごと can include but not limited to love affairs.