I hate this sentiment. I’m never going to let go of the word soccer, and it’s irritating to pretend like I would. The Brits have decided they’re done saying soccer and they only say football now, and it’s irritating to pretend like anything the US does will change it. Let dialects be dialects and let’s be done with it.
It’s not an American thing. It’s a posh southern England thing that got exported to the states by American students at Oxford returning stateside and bringing the game back with them, and forgotten by the English because the southern teams pale in comparison to the north’s.
Americans don’t even know that other countries exist. So if you start telling this to an american, they will dissociate and remember something or other about The Simpsons.
A big part of why I will not give up the word soccer is because of the class implications and the association with soccer’s working class and union roots.
Other countries call it soccer (Australia and New Zealand) but don’t get the grief Americans get as we are not playing most sports with ourselves to be special
It’s a shortened word for “Association Football” and it is used in the UK as a term frequently enough
Y’all were literally calling it soccer in like the 60s and 70s in programs and magazines. I admit these are still more niche than the general populace but they still existed. I hate these arbitrary pedantic arguments where both parties are ostensibly correct. Trolls.
The rules of association football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863. The alternative name soccer was first coined in late 19th century England to help distinguish between several codes of football that were growing in popularity at that time, in particular rugby football. The word soccer is an abbreviation of association (from assoc.) and first appeared in English public schools and universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling “socker”). The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford-Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football (see Oxford “-er”). However, the attribution to Wreford-Brown in particular is generally considered to be spurious. Clive Toye notes that “they took the third, fourth and fifth letters of Association and called it SOCcer.”
So, yes, literally a lot of people used to call it soccer there, so much so it was taught in schools.
ETA: It’s kind of an interesting throwback. Bill Bryson has pointed out that in the colonial period culture in North America (Eastern seaboard really) was still heavily dependent on trends from Britain (and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Europe). But because it took a while for be slang and terms to make it over the Atlantic and propagate across the colonies, they were usually a few decades behind (I think he actually said about 50 years behind). This meant that colonialists in America were using terms in daily life that were considered pretty antiquated by Brits. And could lead to bewilderment and mocking if the team into Brits.
The use of ‘soccer’ / ‘football’ in North America compared to the UK could be seen as an echo of that old dynamic.
I hate this sentiment. I’m never going to let go of the word soccer, and it’s irritating to pretend like I would. The Brits have decided they’re done saying soccer and they only say football now, and it’s irritating to pretend like anything the US does will change it. Let dialects be dialects and let’s be done with it.
Soccer is a British word though, but predominantly southerner / Oxfordian.
Association Football used to get contracted to Assoc or Soc to differentiate it from Rugby Football.
And in Oxford, they historically liked to add -er to the end of things; still in parlance today is calling Rugby “rugger”, £5 note “fiver”, the Bodleian Library “Bodder”.
Assoc became “soccer”.
It’s not an American thing. It’s a posh southern England thing that got exported to the states by American students at Oxford returning stateside and bringing the game back with them, and forgotten by the English because the southern teams pale in comparison to the north’s.
Americans don’t even know that other countries exist. So if you start telling this to an american, they will dissociate and remember something or other about The Simpsons.
I have never heard the Bodleian get called ‘bodder’ before. Wow. Huge if true.
A big part of why I will not give up the word soccer is because of the class implications and the association with soccer’s working class and union roots.
The what now?
Oxford is hardly associated with the working class.
I think the suggestion was that people who don’t say soccer would have to switch, not the other way around?
I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant, and I don’t like it. I read the community note as the opposite, and I also don’t like it.
Okay maybe I read it wrong but you don’t have to do what people on twitter say. In fact, I’d probably recommend you do not take guidance from it
Fear not gentle potato, there is no danger of me stopping saying soccer no matter what people on Twitter say.
Proud of you
Other countries call it soccer (Australia and New Zealand) but don’t get the grief Americans get as we are not playing most sports with ourselves to be special
It’s a shortened word for “Association Football” and it is used in the UK as a term frequently enough
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Y’all did invent the word tho
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Y’all were literally calling it soccer in like the 60s and 70s in programs and magazines. I admit these are still more niche than the general populace but they still existed. I hate these arbitrary pedantic arguments where both parties are ostensibly correct. Trolls.
From Wikipedia:
So, yes, literally a lot of people used to call it soccer there, so much so it was taught in schools.
Get with the times, grandpa!
(jk, jk)
ETA: It’s kind of an interesting throwback. Bill Bryson has pointed out that in the colonial period culture in North America (Eastern seaboard really) was still heavily dependent on trends from Britain (and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Europe). But because it took a while for be slang and terms to make it over the Atlantic and propagate across the colonies, they were usually a few decades behind (I think he actually said about 50 years behind). This meant that colonialists in America were using terms in daily life that were considered pretty antiquated by Brits. And could lead to bewilderment and mocking if the team into Brits.
The use of ‘soccer’ / ‘football’ in North America compared to the UK could be seen as an echo of that old dynamic.
I used to think this too, but I learned that “soccer” is a slang British term for “association football” or “assoccer”. Kinda cool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_(word)
It was initially introduced to colonies as “soccer”, so it’s no wonder it stuck in some places.
Anyway, call it what you want. I use both depending on what social circle I’m talking to.
Ass-soccer.
Goooooooooaaaaaal!
Right?
Thank fuck we didn’t have Soccer AM on sky TV from 1995-2023.
Or Soccer Aid. Which was broadcast by ITV.
Or World Soccer, which is Britain’s longest running football magazine.
Stop speaking for us mate, you don’t have the clout.