If you’re a football fan, you might be wondering why your favorite sport is called soccer. It’s a common question among fans everywhere, and especially those living in the United States.
The answer to this linguistic mystery is simple: the word “soccer” comes from Britain.
In fact, the word “soccer” originated in England in the late 19th century. The name grew out of the use of an abbreviation for the word “association.”
According to TIME and other news outlets, the term was coined by an Oxford University student named Charles Wreford-Brown, who shortened the name “association” to “soccer,” a twist on the second syllable of the word.
While many British people have stopped using the word “soccer,” American football players continue to call their game by that name.
However, Americans are not the only ones who call association football “soccer,” as it is also a popular game in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
The word “soccer” was created to distinguish the sport from other games that were referred to as soccer, such as rugby football.
As the world’s most popular sport, football is played by millions worldwide. The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil is expected to be the most watched sporting event ever.
One of the things that makes football so great is that there are so many different ways to play it. In addition to the traditional version, there are also women’s soccer and college football.
Unlike many sports, the rules of football don’t change depending on where you play it. This allows for a variety of variations, as well as the chance to have fun and compete against players from around the world.
It’s also a great way for people from different countries to get to know each other and build relationships. The word “soccer” has become synonymous with this kind of socializing, and many people from other nations visit England to watch their teams play the sport.
In the past few decades, the popularity of this beautiful game has exploded in America, particularly among big-city literati. These fans often eschew the word “soccer” for the crass Americanism of calling their beloved sport “football.”
There is a reason behind this linguistic divergence, though.
The naming of soccer and the term “football” is tied to the fact that these two versions of the sport were initially categorized under different names, says Stefan Szymanski. During the 1800s, various British universities began playing their own versions of football under different rules.
As these various variations evolved, they were grouped together under the name “association football,” which is now the official name of soccer in the UK and most parts of the world.
Meanwhile, in the US, another version of football emerged in the late nineteenth century that combined elements of both rugby and association football. It was originally known as “gridiron football,” but it wasn’t very popular, so the name was changed to “soccer.”
After this, more and more American association-football players started to use the name “soccer” to refer to their sport. It became so popular that the governing body of the sport, the United States Football Association, changed its name to the “United States Soccer Football Association” in 1945.