Fußball

Forms

Fußball m (genitive Fußballs or Fußballes, plural Fußbälle)^[1] In Switzerland and Liechtenstein it is spelled Fussball.^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from German Fuß + Ball as a loan translation of English football, which was also used in German as a foreign word.^[2][3][4] Kluge and Pfeifer date the calque to the 17th century, Duden to the 18th.^[2][3][5] It is a doublet of the later borrowing Football “American football”.^[1] The same calque is Dutch voetbal and Swedish fotboll.^[2]

Fuß is Middle High German vuoʒ, Old High German fuoʒ, from Proto-Germanic *fōts (“foot”), beside Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃 (fōtus),^[3][6] the Indo-European word for the foot, Proto-Indo-European *pṓds, seen in Latin pēs and Ancient Greek πούς (poús).^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to Duden the word first named the ball kicked with the foot, and only from the end of the 19th century the team game.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, the game played between two teams in which the ball may not be handled, became the main one;^[4][5] König Fußball “King Football” calls it the most popular sport.^[4] The German word was borrowed into Upper Silesian and Cieszyn Polish dialects as fusbal,^[8] and English foosball, the table game, is presumably taken from its pronunciation; the game came to the United States in 1963.^[9]

Timeline

• 17th century – The calque is formed after English football.^[2][3]
• End of the 19th century – It is used for the team game.^[5]
• 1963 – English foosball appears in the United States.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (uncountable) Association football, soccer: Am Wochenende spielen die Jungen Fußball.^[4][1]
2. A football, the leather or plastic ball used in the game.^[4][1]

Word family

• Fußballer
• Fußballspiel
• Fußballspieler
• Fußballplatz
• Fußballmannschaft
• Fußballverein
• Frauenfußball

Related words

• Fußballen
• Fuß
• Ball
• Football
• English foosball

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 326
3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com