With all the World Cup stuff going on right now, this one seemed appropriate. And is why my kids asked, “Why do we call it soccer and everyone else call it football?”
So naturally, I looked it up. =)
As it turns out, soccer comes directly from football…sort of. It started as an abbreviation of Football Association. For reasons fairly obvious, rather than abbreviate with the first three letters of association, university kids would abbreviate it socc instead. Sometimes socca. In the 1890s, it was pretty common for university slang to apply an -er ending to just about anything. Rugby players were called ruggers, for example, so by 1891, soccer had joined the language. Probably first applied to the players, but it apparently stuck and became applied to the game itself.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
According to my quick research, "soccer" is used by: America, Canada, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Isles, until recently Australia, New Zealand (mixed with "soccer" and "football"), South Africa, and the Philippines (mixed)
Cool info! Do you know what other countries call it soccer?
Thanks, I'm glad you took the time to research these words.
I did, yes! Here's what etymonline.com says:
The U.S. style (known to some in England as "stop-start rugby with padding") evolved gradually 19c.; the first true collegiate game is considered to have been played Nov. 6, 1869, between Princeton and Rutgers, at Rutgers, but the rules there were more like soccer. A rematch at Princeton Nov. 13, with the home team's rules, was true U.S. football. The earliest recorded application of the word football to this is from 1881.
Glad you cleared that up. I've always wondered. Great information. Thanks for doing the legwork.
Interesting, I always wondered why it's called soccer.
In your research did you come cross why American football is called that? As we all know the ball is mostly held in the hand.