The British - and most of the rest of the world - game Football, in the States is called Soccer. Why?

mk2norwich

Quite simply, because it's a game that involves the player kicking a ball with his or her foot. Hence Foot-Ball! Why would us Brits call it anything else? From what I've seen, the name 'football' seems to be considerably more applicable to the British version of the game than in the US. A dictionary I have has this entry for the word 'soccer': 'The most common type of football...also called 'association football' and 'football''. From that definition of the word, I suppose that maybe therefore 'soccer' is the correct term for the game, if you take into consideration the variations of the sport. Dec 22 02, 9:33 AM

Tabby Tom

Originally, 'football' seems to have been a violent free-for-all in which the ball could be kicked, handled or thrown about %96 as indeed could the players. As it became more civilized, various codes of rules were developed, but all the variants of the game were regarded as forms of football. The non-handling game came to be governed in England by a body called the Football Association, and the game was therefore called 'association football', to distinguish it from (for example) Rugby football. 'Soccer' is generally thought to be derived from 'association', and was originally an abbreviation of 'association football'. Though this word was coined in Britain, it is rarely used here today. Association football, as the dominant code, has usurped the name of 'football' for itself, and this word has been borrowed by other languages. In the USA, where the dominant code is American football, another word naturally has to be used, and so they've revived he word 'soccer'. I'm told that in New Zealand, 'football' often means rugby. Dec 22 02, 12:11 PM

Gnomon

The name soccer is the normal name for Association Football in Ireland. We also have Rugby football, which is almost always called Rugby, and Gaelic football, which is usually called Gaelic, but is sometimes called football. Soccer comes from 'Association'. Dec 23 02, 12:42 AM

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