One of the best-known differences between British and American English is the fact that the sport known as football in Great Britain is usually called soccer in the United States. Because the sport originated in England, it is often assumed that soccer is an Americanism. In fact, the word is thoroughly British in origin. So why is it that Americans (not to mention Canadians, Australians, and others) are likelier to use the word than Brits are? The answer lies in how the sport developed in each country.
Although football-type games have been around for centuries, the sport we know today is often said to have begun in 1863, when England’s newly formed Football Association wrote down a set of rules. At the time, it was the most widely played game of its kind in the country, but it wasn’t the only one. Rugby football, named after an English boarding school, was a variation that allowed players to carry and run with the ball to advance it toward the goal. The game played under the Football Association’s rules thus became known as association football.
Inevitably, the names would be shortened. Linguistically creative students at the University of Oxford in the 1880s distinguished between the sports of “rugger” (rugby football) and “assoccer” (association football). The latter term was further shortened to “soccer” (sometimes spelled “socker”), and the name quickly spread beyond the campus. However, “soccer” never became much more than a nickname in Great Britain. By the 20th century, rugby football was more commonly called rugby, while association football had earned the right to be known as just plain football.
Meanwhile, in the United States, a sport emerged in the late 19th century that borrowed elements of both rugby and association football. Before long, it had proved more popular than either of them. In full, it was known as gridiron football, but most people never bothered with the first word. As a result, American association-football players increasingly adopted soccer to refer to their sport. The United States Football Association, which had formed in the 1910s as the official organizing body of American soccer, changed its name to the United States Soccer Football Association in 1945, and it later dispensed with the “Football” altogether. No longer just a nickname, soccer had stuck.
It's worth noting, though, that the word “soccer” originated in the UK, having been popularized, first as “socca”, at Oxford University as an abbreviation of “association” (soccer's full official name is “association football”), to distinguish it from other forms of football, such as rugby.
The word "soccer" comes from the use of the term "association football" in Britain, and goes back 200 years. In the early 1800s, a bunch of British universities took "football" — a medieval game — and started playing their own versions of it, all under different rules.
What is it about this sport that makes it so appealing? Psychologists have suggested that our love for football has much to do with our need for social connection and tribalism. People naturally enjoy being part of a group, and watching their favourite team play provides them with a sense of belonging and community.
In most countries, it is simply called football, or a variation of that word, such as fútbol, Fußball, or futebol. However, in North America, the term soccer is more commonly used, to distinguish it from other types of football, such as American football or Canadian football.
In the United States, where American football is more popular, the word football is used to refer only to that sport. Association football is most commonly referred to as soccer. As early as 1911 there were several names in use for the sport in the Americas.
Because that was a slang term developed for it in England, not the US, and was in more common use when Americans started to pick up on the sport. And the US adopted the term.
What is called soccer in Canada today was generally known as football in Canada in the early days of the sport as it is known in much of the rest of the world today. The British Columbia Football Association was the first provincial football association formed in Canada in 1891.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with an estimated 4 billion fans globally. Its widespread appeal can be attributed to its passion, rivalries, and drama, which transcend cultural and linguistic barriers.
Within the English-speaking world, the sport is now usually called "football" in Great Britain and most of Ulster in the north of Ireland, whereas people usually call it "soccer" in regions and countries where other codes of football are prevalent, such as Australia, Canada, South Africa, most of Ireland (excluding ...
While no single individual can realistically lay claim to being the 'inventor' of football, Ebenezer Morley has been referred to as the 'father' of the Football Association.
Italians even have their own name for the game: calcio, literally “kick”, preferring not to Latinise the word “football” as the Spanish (fútbol), French (le foot) and Portuguese (futebol) all do.
In Australia, "football" may refer to any of several popular codes. These include Australian Football, rugby league, rugby union, and association football. As is the case in the United States and Canada, association football has traditionally been referred to in Australia as soccer.
The association in association football was also shortened to soccer. This clips off the first and last three syllables of association, leaving –soc-, onto which that chummy –er was added, yielding soccer. The term is first recorded as socker in 1891. Footer is slightly older, found in that fateful year of 1863.
Association football (Irish: Peil/Sacar) commonly referred to as football or soccer (to avoid confusion with Gaelic football), is the team sport with the second highest level of participation in the Republic of Ireland (with five-a-side games being included).
Although the official English name of the Japan Football Association uses the term "football", the term sakkā (サッカー), derived from "soccer", is much more commonly used than futtobōru (フットボール).
In the U.K. American Football would indeed be called American Football to distinguish it from Association Football, Rugby Football, Gaelic Football and even Australian Football.
The sport of association football is commonly called "soccer" in the United States. The word derives from "association" – as in The Football Association – in contrast to "rugger", or rugby football.
In most parts of the world, football means soccer and in America, football means American Football. Soccer is the term used in America, Canada, Australia to refer to the most popular global sport i.e. Football, which is also known as Association Football.
Introduction: My name is Jonah Leffler, I am a determined, faithful, outstanding, inexpensive, cheerful, determined, smiling person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
