Etymologically
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Fußball

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfuːsˌbal/[1]

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
  • 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