Football, not Soccer

[cuppajoe_9]

Ok, listen up fellow North Americans. You know that game where you kick the ball with your foot? That's football. Not soccer, football. That word had been associated with that sport for centuries before we invented the game with the unusually shaped ball and the severe steroid abuse, so we'll just have to find a new word for ours.

Join me in my quest to stop the people on my continent from sounding like complete naïfs.

[Stanislaw]

Ok, listen up fellow North Americans. You know that game where you kick the ball with your foot? That's football. Not soccer, football. That word had been associated with that sport for centuries before we invented the game with the unusually shaped ball and the severe steroid abuse, so we'll just have to find a new word for ours.

Join me in my quest to stop the people on my continent from sounding like complete naïfs.

North American Rugby ripoff with more rules and less violence? :D

[IrishCanadian]

Your absolutely right!
Having grown up in a nation socialized by hockey (dumb sport compared to football) I have to get used to the proper terminology of football every four years.
I guess American football must have developed from Gaelic footbal which would make sence of where the name came from. But I don't know what yahoo came up with the word "soccer."

[Virgil]

From M-W:

Main Entry: soc·cer
Pronunciation: 'sä-k&r
Function: noun
Etymology: by shortening & alteration from association football
: a game played on a field between two teams of 11 players each with the object to propel a round ball into the opponent's goal by kicking or by hitting it with any part of the body except the hands and arms -- called also association football

So it comes from "association football."

[Petrarch's Love]

My father feels similarly and differentiates the two by calling football, football, and that other sport "pointy ball."

[Shannanigan]

lol....well, in spanish, "soccer" is "futbol" and american "football" is "futbol americano"...

[thevintagepiper]

A fellow Northern American who thinks the same way I do! Yeehaaw!


I agree.

[cuppajoe_9]

So it comes from "association football."Yes, I know, but that makes no sense whatsoever because all you need is the ball and a field. You don't have to be associated with anything.
My father feels similarly and differntiates the two by calling football, football, and that other sport "pointy ball."Awesome, pointyball it is.

[Virgil]

Yes, I know, but that makes no sense whatsoever because all you need is the ball and a field. You don't have to be associated with anything.Awesome, pointyball it is.
Well, you'll never get Americans or canadians to change. :p You won't get me to change.

[cuppajoe_9]

Well, you'll never get Americans or canadians to change. :p You won't get me to change.Maybe not, but I can stubbornly confuse the hell out of whoever I talk to about sports.

What, Canadians don't get a capital now?

[Stanislaw]

pointy ball eh, I suppose but it lacks the ferocity and ripping-offness of football...

heh, I bet ye could get a grant to study what name would be prefeered! :D

[cuppajoe_9]

heh, I bet ye could get a grant to study what name would be prefeered!And what better place to study that (and spend my grant) than in sports bars? Stan, I think you're on to something here...

[Stanislaw]

And what better place to study that (and spend my grant) than in sports bars? Stan, I think you're on to something here...

yeah...you would have to do hours of gruelling research in sports bars across north america...of course this would have to span multi seasons to get an acurate sampling... :D

[Shannanigan]

pointyball isn't fierce enough? hmmm...how about missileball??? lol

[Woland]

The term football to signify soccer seems more appropriate considering the ball is in contact with the foot most of the time.

North american football should be called handball or armball, oh I like missleball

[kilted exile]

Ok, I cant vote for pointy ball, some people may confuse it with rugby (also known as egg-chasing)

[cuppajoe_9]

The corners of a rugby ball are rounded off, are they not?

[SoccerStar134]

Your absolutely right!
Having grown up in a nation socialized by hockey (dumb sport compared to football) I have to get used to the proper terminology of football every four years.
I guess American football must have developed from Gaelic footbal which would make sence of where the name came from. But I don't know what yahoo came up with the word "soccer."


The yahoo was actually not american! "The word soccer does not come from the United States but was a term used by public school and university students, most notably at Oxford, in the 19th Century to shorten the new game “Association Football”. The predilection to shorten words with “er” extended to Rugby too, known as rugger." I do find it annoying though, but what can I say? it stuck so now its a word. I wonder which shortening came first? Soccer or Football? In any event, I think the person who called american carry ball football should be someone accused of a crime. how do you name a sport after something you cant use?! oh well. what are ya gunna do?

[Virgil]

The Italians refer to soccer as calcio, which also doesn't have any foot reference. And the Italians love soccer as much as any country in the world. So if they don't call it football, why should English speakers be forced to? I feel that soccer is a perfectly good name for it. Sorry cuppajoe. ;)

I wonder what other languages call soccer and how does that translate into English? Anyone out there want to contribute?

[cuppajoe_9]

My main objection is that we (North Americans) have taken away the word Football from a game where you strike a ball with your foot and given it to a far inferior sport.

A few minutes with the Babel Fish translator gave me this:

Dutch: voetbal
French: le football
German: Fußball
Portugese: soccer (I'm not sure whether this is Brazilian or European Portugese)
Spanish: fútbol (again, not sure which dialect)

[rae_of_light]

I like soccer, so I will call it soccer because if I say football, people will think I am talking about American football, which I absolutely abhor. I think that the violence in it is so pointlessly dumb... why can't they just play 'touch'???

[ennison]

Well football is sometimes the beautiful game but there are too many prima donnas and cheats in it. I mean what we call football. But there are lots of good sports for people with all kinds of athletic abilities and interests. I strongly suspect that American/Canadian ice-hockey developed from Camanachd

[bluevictim]

Ok, listen up fellow North Americans. You know that game where you kick the ball with your foot? That's football. Not soccer, football. That word had been associated with that sport for centuries before we invented the game with the unusually shaped ball and the severe steroid abuse, so we'll just have to find a new word for ours.

Join me in my quest to stop the people on my continent from sounding like complete naïfs.
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PF_NEW%5C08_22_2005_A/PF_1096953~Don-Quixote-Posters.jpg

[kilted exile]

I strongly suspect that American/Canadian ice-hockey developed from Camanachd

Yay, Shinty!!:thumbs_up

[Taliesin]

The Italians refer to soccer as calcio, which also doesn't have any foot reference. And the Italians love soccer as much as any country in the world. So if they don't call it football, why should English speakers be forced to? I feel that soccer is a perfectly good name for it. Sorry cuppajoe. ;)

I wonder what other languages call soccer and how does that translate into English? Anyone out there want to contribute?

In Estonian - jalgpall. (meaning football, literally)

Calling football football makes a lot more sense than calling american football football.
In first, you use your feet to move the ball. In the second, feet are used only for running. Might call tennis football too, using that logic - you move around on your feet when playing it.
And all the English speakers don't use the word soccer. Only americans do.
And football isn't mainly played in associations. It's an everyman sport, therefore, soccer as a word is unlogical.

[Nightshade]

In Estonian - jalgpall. (meaning football, literally)

Calling football football makes a lot more sense than calling american football football.
In first, you use your feet to move the ball. In the second, feet are used only for running. Might call tennis football too, using that logic - you move around on your feet when playing it.
And all the English speakers don't use the word soccer. Only americans do.
And football isn't mainly played in associations. It's an everyman sport, therefore, soccer as a word is unlogical.

here here,
and to get even wider in the multi linguilal( yah! cant spell it ) net
in arabic its Koorret Q'dum ( cant be writeen phonetically closer than that) but anyway literatlly translates as ball of foot- Football. somtimes also just referecd to as q'dum - similart to the english footie.

[Virgil]

Calling football football makes a lot more sense than calling american football football.
In first, you use your feet to move the ball. In the second, feet are used only for running. Might call tennis football too, using that logic - you move around on your feet when playing it.

haha. Not quite. In American football there is all sorts of kicking involved. Punts, kick offs, field goals, and extra points, all of which involve kicking the ball. American football is a complex game (perhaps the most complicated of all professional sports) with many facets. Kicking the ball is an integral part, though not the only part.


And all the English speakers don't use the word soccer. Only americans do.
Don't Canadians call it soccer?


And football isn't mainly played in associations. It's an everyman sport, therefore, soccer as a word is unlogical.
Perhaps. But who says language evolves in a rational manner? And why would someone try to force it to be logical? Culture, reflecting the complexity of human beings, does not move logically. That's for Vulcans (from Star Trek). Like I point out earlier in this thread, Italians, who love soccer as much as anyone, don't call it football; they call it calcio.