soccer
Pronunciation
- IPA: UK /ˈsɒk.ə/, US /ˈsɑː.kɚ/[1]
Etymology
It is a shortening of Assoc., the abbreviation of association in the name Association football, with the jocular suffix -er,[2][3][4] originally British university slang.[2][3] Rugger for rugby was formed the same way.[4][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Football played under Association rules: 1889 as socca, later socker (1891) and soccer (1895),[2][3][5] in MWU 1885.[6]
Semantic evolution
Association football was the official name given in the late 19th century to distinguish the game from rugby football.[4] The Daily Telegraph drew attention to the word in 1899 in an article on Oxford slang, widely reprinted in the United States.[2] In the United States the game was so called by 1905, when Ivy League universities and clubs on Philadelphia's Main Line played under Association rules, and the word was used there to distinguish it from American football.[2] Similar Oxford slang of the 1890s gave fresher, brekkers and leccer.[2]
Timeline
Modern meaning
Noun
- A game played by two teams of eleven players who try to kick a round ball into the other team's goal; football.
Word family
- soccer mom
- indoor soccer
- table soccer
Related words
- rugger
- association
- football
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster