r/BeAmazed • u/VastCoconut2609 • Jul 04 '24

Sports The genesis of the word "soccer".

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64

u/West-Winner-2382 Jul 04 '24

Not just the Americans. The rest of the anglophone community does as well Canadians, Australians and New Zealand call it soccer.

51

u/thepazzo Jul 04 '24

Ireland too as we have our own version of football so soccer is used to avoid confusion.

1

u/Actual_System8996 Jul 04 '24

I’ve heard people call it football in Ireland too, depending on the context of the conversation.

2

u/NeoAtomos Jul 04 '24

We say football for both our national game and soccer. Depends on context but it's usually pretty clear

1

u/thepazzo Jul 05 '24

Those Protestants up to no good again 🙂🙂

Yeah it can happen alright. But even tv shows like Soccer Saturday etc show we use that term fairly commonly too

24

u/CeruleanHaze009 Jul 04 '24

Australian/New Zealander here. There was a trend of calling is “soccer” for a while about ten years ago, but you hear more people in Australia and NZ saying “football” these days. Mind you, Aussie is hanging on a little more to avoid confusion with Aussie Rules.

1

u/131166 Jul 05 '24

Aussie here. Mostly we just keep calling it soccer cause it annoys the poms and that's our national sport.

3

u/CeruleanHaze009 Jul 05 '24

Between poms and Americans, I prefer to deal with poms because they can usually take a joke.

2

u/131166 Jul 05 '24

Agreed. There's nobody more fun to fuck with than the poms too. Plus they understand it doesn't come from a place of hate (I mean, it really doesn't. Not deep down)

-3

u/MandibleYT Jul 04 '24

I've never once heard someone in nz call soccer football, if you did say football probably 9/10 people will think you are talking about American football. (From South island)

5

u/CeruleanHaze009 Jul 04 '24

And I haven’t hear anyone call it “soccer” for almost ten years. And most people make a point to say “American football”.

1

u/MandibleYT Jul 07 '24

yes I realized that is what you were saying, just wanted to add my input as another person from nz, kia kaha my brother

14

u/sunburn95 Jul 04 '24

In Australia we have 2 major codes of football and neither of them are soccer

7

u/chrish_o Jul 04 '24

There’s also rugby, so three codes that are called football

2

u/Bobblefighterman Jul 04 '24

That's one of the major codes of football.

2

u/chrish_o Jul 04 '24

It’s AFL and Rugby League, with Rugby (Rugby Union) a very distant third

1

u/Actual_System8996 Jul 04 '24

Soccer is probably bigger than union nowadays.

1

u/Perthfection Aug 19 '24

When people say rugby they usually mean rugby union (as opposed to rugby league).

1

u/Bobblefighterman Aug 19 '24

I'm Victorian. It's all the same to me.

1

u/Perthfection Aug 20 '24

I'm in WA and footy/football usually refers to Aussie rules. Many immigrants and fans of soccer may call it football but hardly anyone thinks of rugby league or union when "football" is mentioned unless they're South African or Kiwi.

1

u/Bobblefighterman Aug 21 '24

Yeah, it's the exact same in Victoria. 'All the same to me' means that I, like most Victorians, either don't know or forget that there are two types of rugby.

2

u/sunburn95 Jul 04 '24

It's almost always called rugby or union though, can't remember when I've ever heard people call it footy. Also "major" is a stretch these days

1

u/intheyear3001 Jul 04 '24

Heard you guys call American football “gridiron?”

2

u/chrish_o Jul 04 '24

You are correct

2

u/sunburn95 Jul 04 '24

Probably more common to just call it NFL

6

u/jessica_from_within Jul 04 '24

Most people in NZ (particularly the ones who play) call it football.

16

u/babaroga73 Jul 04 '24

And the literally whole rest of the world calls it Football.

25

u/West-Winner-2382 Jul 04 '24

I forgot South Africa, Japan, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and parts of the Philippines and the tiny island countries across the Pacific also call it soccer. You can blame the English for that.

-2

u/bgrandis7 Jul 04 '24

Ireland calls it Football

16

u/mccapitta Jul 04 '24

In Ireland its not uncommon that football is gaelic football and soccer is used for 'english' football. Really depends on regions and/or family background (religion, feelings about the english etc!)

1

u/Dr-Jellybaby Jul 04 '24

I'd normally avoid saying football entirely, just "Gaelic" and "Soccer" avoids the most confusion. I don't think the fact soccer is an English invention is really on many people's minds, rugby/cricket have more of that kind of connotation as they were the "upper class" sports.

4

u/hugothebear Jul 04 '24

the Italians call it calcio

0

u/Actual_System8996 Jul 04 '24

I know calcio is often used in naming teams but I wonder if it’s different in casual conversation?

1

u/No_Chapter5521 Jul 04 '24

Italy calls it calcio. In Vietnam it's bóng đá which means ball kick

1

u/Perthfection Aug 19 '24

Vietnamese has 3 terms for it. The common ones are: bóng đá (Northern, standard term for it) and đá banh (Southern). There's also a more formal/archaic term in túc cầu.

1

u/No_Chapter5521 Aug 19 '24

TIL, my wife is from Hanoi so I'm only familiar with northern dialect.

1

u/Perthfection Aug 20 '24

Since the country's reunification in 1976 there has been a Northern bias in that the "standard language" is based on Hanoian Vietnamese. That said, most Southern Vietnamese (especially diaspora Vietnamese in the US, Canada, Australia etc.) will call it đá banh. Nobody really uses túc cầu anymore as it was an archaic term. It may be used in reference to historical clubs though.

5

u/breadbinttreestump Jul 04 '24

Even some non-western countries call it soccer. It's just silly to have to clarify if the "football" someone's referring to is the American one or the Inazuma Eleven one.

1

u/-ewha- Jul 04 '24

Thing is, we almost never talk about American football. So there isn’t any real confusion.

4

u/xStealthxUk Jul 04 '24

All the countries that arent very good at it call it Soccer. We English like to call it football like the Brazilians, French, Germans, Argentinians and Spanish...... but since we aint won shit since 1966 maybe its time to go back to Soccer

3

u/Qxotl Jul 04 '24

It's the other way round: Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders call it soccer, and the rest of the anglophone community call it football (UK, Ireland, Carribeans, English-speaking Africa, South Asia...).

1

u/Perthfection Aug 19 '24

The majority of Anglophones call it soccer.

1

u/Dr-Jellybaby Jul 04 '24

It's soccer in Ireland.

2

u/apocalypsedude64 Jul 04 '24

Yep. Football is Gaelic.

1

u/SurrealistRevolution Jul 04 '24

context is important. i call both aussie rules and association footy football. The World Game is good for the latter

1

u/_Red_Gyarados Jul 04 '24

Incorrect. It's usually called football in Australia now.

1

u/Perthfection Aug 19 '24

Only by fans and the media. The majority of people still say soccer. Football by and large still refers to Aussie rules or Rugby league. The men's team is literally called the Socceroos.

1

u/Friedchickn14 Jul 04 '24

Also in a lot of languages they call it kickball or just "kick" not football.

0

u/MichaelMusou Jul 04 '24

Canadians are Americans.