#65: The Origin of Soccer
It’s a well-known fact that the whole world calls the most popular sport in the world “football,” while the United States calls it “soccer.” But why is there such a huge linguistic difference? Believe it or not, the term “soccer” is fully British, not American. The word emerged as an abbreviation for the Football Association (i.e. “assoccer” as a shorter version of “association football”).
The “assoccer” nickname was further shortened to “soccer” over the years. While it was always a cutesy nickname in the UK, it never became the norm. By the time the game reached the United States, American football was already well-established. So, we started referring to the game by its UK nickname, soccer. As we all know, that nickname stuck pretty well.