Football holds immense significance in the lives of millions of fans worldwide, yet it is referred to by a different name in two of the World Cup participating nations — the United States and Canada, where it is called “soccer.” But why? And why does this term seem unusual to football enthusiasts elsewhere? “When I was a child in England, the term ‘soccer’ was commonly accepted,” says Stefan Szymanski. An emeritus professor at the University of Michigan who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, he finds the debate between “football” and “soccer” to be rather curious. “I asked my friends, ‘Do you remember? Maybe I’m mistaken. Was there really a controversy about this?’ I started talking to people and found that in the 1970s, there wasn’t much dispute over the term.”
Szymanski’s curiosity turned into research. According to him, football initially was a sport played mostly by the upper classes. “In 1863, the founders of the Football Association in England were Oxford graduates who had attended prestigious public schools,” he explains. The game played according to the Football Association’s rules was called “association football,” which helped distinguish it from another popular game, rugby, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica’s John M. Cunningham. “At that time, there were two games: one called rugby football and the other association football,” Szymanski adds.
During the 1880s and 1890s, wealthy university students developed a habit of shortening words and adding “-er” to them in colloquial speech. “For example, ‘breakfast’ became ‘brekker.'” They called rugby “rugger.” But how did the word “soccer” originate? There is a theory, but Szymanski notes, “No one is entirely certain it’s the truth.” These students created “soccer” by taking the middle of “association” (soc) and adding “-er” on the end. “No one knows exactly how, but it’s widely believed to have started at Oxford. Many documents suggest that the students there coined the term.”
Sports historian Andy Mitchell points out that by late 1885, various school magazines across England contained at least three instances each of “soccer” and “socker.” “My guess is that ‘soccer’ and ‘rugger’ were already in oral use and first appeared in print at the start of 1885 in an anonymous publication,” Mitchell wrote on the Scottish sports blog History. Over time, usage of “socker” declined, but “soccer” remained popular. When football spread to other continents, the word traveled with it. Today, countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada commonly use “soccer.”
In the United States, “football” refers to American football. “All of these things are related,” Szymanski explains. “American football evolved from rugby but was also influenced by soccer.” “They are like close brothers, which is why ’soccer’ came into use in the 1880s and 1890s when American football was also growing in popularity.” Szymanski and his colleague Zilka Maria Winek note that British newspapers graciously prioritized the word “football,” although “soccer” was still used until the 1980s. Over time, “football” became the standard term among the general public. During his university lectures, Szymanski notes, “The two terms ‘football’ and ‘soccer’ often come up in discussion. When Americans say ‘soccer,’ they often apologize saying, ‘Sorry, I meant football,’ because they think the British are sensitive about it. And they are right — some British people really are.” He adds, “I find the apology very polite, but I tell them, ‘It’s an English word, so use it confidently.’”
