football

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈfʊt.bɔːl/, US /ˈfʊt.bɔːl/, /ˈfʊt.bɑːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, Middle English fotbal, of foot and ball.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A game with an inflated ball kicked by two sides: 1409,^[5] or about 1400;^[2] the inflated ball itself is mentioned in the mid-14th century, in Octavian.^[2] The OED's earliest quotations are from 1424 for the game and 1486 for the ball.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The game was forbidden in a Scottish statute of 1424,^[2] and Shakespeare has the insult “you base foot-ball player” in King Lear.^[2] Etymonline notes that it first became a national obsession in England about 1630.^[2] The figurative sense “something kicked around” is by the 1530s.^[2][6] Rules were first regularized at Cambridge in 1848, and soccer split off in 1863;^[2] football meaning soccer specifically is from 1863, and Australian football from 1859.^[5] American football developed through the 19th century, and the first collegiate game, between Princeton and Rutgers, was played on 6 November 1869;^[2] football for the American game is from 1881.^[6] Word Origins notes that the word means different games in Britain, the United States and Australia.^[7]

Timeline

• mid-14th century – the ball.^[2]
• 1409 – the game.^[5]
• 1424 – banned in Scotland.^[2][6]
• 1530s – something kicked around.^[2]
• 1848 – Cambridge rules.^[2]
• 1863 – soccer splits off.^[2][5]
• 1869 – first American collegiate game.^[2]
• 1881 – American football.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (chiefly British) Soccer: a game in which two teams of eleven try to kick or head a ball into the opposing goal.
2. (US) A game played by two teams of eleven in which a ball is carried, passed or kicked across the opponents' goal line.
3. Any of several similar games, such as rugby or Australian football.
4. The ball used in any of these games.
5. Something kicked around or treated roughly: a political football.

Word family

• footballer
• footer
• footy

Related words

• foosball
• foot
• ball
• soccer
• rugby

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press