August 6, 1999

soccer

I can understand why the rest of the world calls it "football," but how did we end up calling it "soccer" and what does that word really mean?

Somewhat unexpectedly, the word soccer is of British origin, though as you note soccer is the word favored in America, while the usual word in Britain is football.

The formal designation for the game we know as soccer is Association football, that is, football played according to the rules of the Football Association. And soccer is derived from the phrase Association football.

Of the many suffixes -er, one of them is a chiefly British form that creates informal or jocular mutations of more neutral words, which are typically clipped to a single syllable and often subject to other mutations before the application of the suffix. Examples that might be familiar to Americans are rugger, for the sport of rugby; bed-sitter, for a bed-sitting room (i.e. a room having a bed but also functioning as a small living room); and fresher, for a freshman. The suffix is said to have become popularized as slang at an Oxford college around 1875, picking up the usage from Rugby School (where the game of rugby was invented after an enterprising student in a soccer game picked up the ball).

The word soccer is formed from (As)soc(iation football) and this -er sufix.

The word soccer is first found in the late 1880s.