• thisbenzingring@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_(word)

      The word “soccer” originated as an Oxford “-er” slang abbreviation of “association”, and is credited to late nineteenth century English footballer, Charles Wreford-Brown.[8] It has been speculated that both this story and the William Webb Ellis rugby story are apocryphal, however this appears to be a revision of history as the English term “soccer” fell out of favour while England differentiated their language from America’s (where the term soccer had become widely used) English in the 20th century due to growing American popularity.[9] “Socker” with a k appeared in print at least as early as 1889.[10] The New York Times, published in 1905: “It was a fad at Oxford and Cambridge to use ‘er’ at the end of many words, such as foot-er, sport-er, and as Association did not take an ‘er’ easily, it was, and is, sometimes spoken of as Soccer.”[11] There is also the sometimes-heard variation, “soccer football”.[12]

      • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Your source says the same thing I said… The word soccer comes from abbreviating “association”. As in association football.

        • thisbenzingring@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 hour ago

          it was foot ball because it was a ball game played on your feet. Rugby was foot ball you played with your hands and Association foot ball was kicked. People called it soccer before it was formally called football (without the space)