The Word Nerd Word of the week comes from my energetic U8 soccer players. At practice Monday someone asked, “Where does the word ‘soccer’ come from?”
I couldn’t let that one go unanswered.
To read about more interesting words, visit Kathy and her friends at Bermuda Onion. You’ll find links to Wondrous Words Wednesday posts, and you can also contribute one of your own.
The term soccer has interesting history. According to an article in The Atlantic, historians can trace the basic game of soccer back to the middle ages. But official rules weren’t set until the late 1800s, when the sport gained popularity with aristocratic boys in England. In 1863, club leaders met in a pub to agree on official rules and form the “Football Association”.
Later, the term “Association Football” got shortened to “soccer”. The theory is folks at Oxford and Cambridge liked to put “-er” on the ends of words, but Associationer didn’t sound good, so they used “soccer” instead.
The term gained favor in the U.S. in the early 1900s to distinguish it from American football. British fans embraced the name “soccer” after WWII, when the influence of American culture was high. However, in the 1980s, the Brits started to reject the American term and use “football” instead.
The Atlantic story has more details and a cool map that shows what countries around the world call the sport we know as soccer.
Word Nerd Workout
Do you know the origin of the name of your favorite sport? Look it up and share!
Thanks for getting sporty with me. 😉
Julia
It’s also a tradition in the Royal Navy to put -er or -ers on the end of a word or phrase. Hong Kong becomes “Hongkers”, very hot (red hot) becomes “redders” and the morning tea break is referred to as “11 o’clockers”.
Very interesting! Thank you for adding to the discussion. I’m headed for an 11 o’clocker now!
How interesting! There was a strong British influence in the language in this part of the country and a lot of older people put an “er” at the end of words so I can totally see that happening with soccer.
I did not know this! Interesting. And are you coaching in the fall AND the spring? Whew. What a great soccer mom; I bet there’s a great definition for that one…!
Pulling “soc” out of Association and adding -er seems a strange way to come up with the name of a sport, but then, the world is a strange place!
Interesting! thanks for sharing this.
I’m glad you did the research on soccer. I liked the Atlanta article too. I now have some info to share with my youngest granddaughter. Thanks.
It’s interesting to know that the term began in the UK, when they are so adamant about it being different now. In the US it makes sense for it to be called something other than “football” because of our specific US football.
Thanks for visiting today!
Hi Julia,
As a Brit, I’m afraid that football is the official language here still, although with the surge of interest in American Football, the Americanism soccer, is beginning to catch on again, to distinguish between the two sports.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yvonne
Thank you for sharing this British insight. Isn’t language interesting? Thanks for stopping by.
I love learning stuff!