Why Is Football Called ‘Soccer’ in the US and Canada? The History Explained
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Football holds immense significance in the lives of millions of fans worldwide, yet in two World Cup participating nations, it is known by a different name.
In the United States and Canada, football is called ‘soccer’. But why?
Why does this term strike other football-loving countries as surprising?
“When I was growing up in England, the term ‘soccer’ was commonly accepted,” says Stefan Szymanski.
An emeritus professor at the University of Michigan, he was raised in the 1960s and 1970s and finds the debate around ‘football’ and ‘soccer’ quite unusual.
“I asked my friends, ‘Do you remember? Maybe it’s my faulty memory. Was there really a controversy about this?’ I started talking to people, and in the 1970s there really wasn’t much debate about the word.”
Szymanski’s curiosity grew into research.
According to him, football initially was a sport associated with the ‘elite’ class.
“The Football Association in England, founded in 1863, was established by graduates from Oxford who studied in elite public schools,” he explains.
The game played under Football Association rules was called ‘Association Football,’ distinguishing it from another popular sport, rugby, explains John M. Cunningham of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
“At that time, there were two games: Rugby Football and Association Football,” Szymanski adds.
‘Breaker’, ‘Rugger’, ‘Soccer’
In the 1880s and 1890s, wealthy university students had a custom of shortening words and adding ‘er’ to create slang terms.
“So ‘breakfast’ became ‘breaker.'”
They referred to rugby as ‘rugger.’
So how did the word ‘soccer’ originate?
There is a theory, but Szymanski says, “No one is completely sure if this is the full truth.”
These inventive students took the middle part of the word ‘Association’—’soc’—and added ‘er’ to coin ‘soccer.’
“We don’t know precisely, but it is widely believed that the term originated at Oxford. Many documents suggest that the students there started using it.”
Soccer Later Spreads to Canada, the US and Beyond
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Sports historian Andy Mitchell notes that by late 1885, magazines in England’s various schools included at least three occurrences of ‘soccer’ and ‘socker’.
“My guess is that ‘soccer’ and ‘rugger’ were already in oral use and appeared in an anonymous publication at the start of 1885,” Mitchell wrote on the Scottish sports blog History.
Over time, use of the word ‘socker’ declined while ‘soccer’ remained popular. As football spread to other continents, the term grew in use, particularly in countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada.
In the United States, ‘football’ refers to American football.
“These things are all interconnected,” Szymanski explains. “American football evolved from rugby but was also influenced by soccer.”
“They are closely related, like brothers. Thus, when the term ‘soccer’ came into use during the 1880s and 1890s, American football was also becoming popular in the United States.”
Szymanski and his colleague Zilka Maria Winek note that British newspapers thankfully preferred the word ‘football,’ although the term ‘soccer’ continued in use until the 1980s.
Over time, ‘football’ became the dominant term in common usage.
According to Szymanski, while teaching at university, the two words are frequently discussed. “Americans often apologize when using ‘soccer,’ saying, ‘Sorry, I meant football,’ because they think the British are sensitive about this subject.
And they are absolutely right because some British really do feel that way.
I think the apology is very polite, but I tell them, ‘This is an English word; use it boldly.'”
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