Where did Football's nickname Soccer originate?

Answer

The British invented Football in 1863, full name Association football, the term football is the formal name while soccer is its nickname that was created by the English inorder to distinguish it from rugby football. Soccer became a shortened reference to the word assocation football. Therefore, Football's nickname soccer is often used to refer to football in countries where another form of football exist...example..

America = Gridiron (american football)

Australia = Aussie Rules (australian football)

Although...Australia have now referred back to the formal name Football having replaced soccer with Football in its official title 4 years ago.

Origins of the Term Soccer for Football...

From the reference.com Web site under the search of "Football (soccer) names" you will find very a interesting article to help us to answer the question of Football/Soccer. "The names of football refer to the terms used to describe the sport most commonly referred to as Football (soccer) in the English speaking world.

Background

The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863, and the name football was coined . The word soccer is a colloquial abbreviation of association (from assoc.) and first appeared in the 1880s. The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football. In the late 19th century the word soccer tended to be used only at public schools; most people knew the game simply as football. Today the term association football is rarely used, although some clubs still include Association Football Club (AFC) in their name. The game is sometimes known colloquially as footy; the term footer was also once used but is now obsolete.

English speaking world

Football is more commonly known as soccer in a small number of English-speaking nations where the word "football" refers to a rival code of football developed within that nation, specifically Canada, Ireland and the United States, and also in areas where Rugby football is more popular than association football, such as Australia, New Zealand and the white communities of South Africa. In these countries "football" was often included in the names of the earliest leagues and governing bodies of the sport, but as that word became increasingly associated with other domestic form of the game so soccer became more widely used.

In the United States, the sport's governing body is the United States Soccer Federation. This body was originally called the U.S. Football Association, and was formed in 1913 by the merger of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football Association. The word "soccer" was added to the name in 1945, making it the U.S. Soccer Football Association, and it did not drop the word "football" until 1974, when it assumed its current name. Today, "soccer" is the standard name for the sport in the United States, with "football" referring instead to Gridiron (American football).

A few Australian authorities, such as the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) have always used the name "football". In 2004, the Australian Soccer Association changed its name to Football Federation Australia, and announced that the official name of the sport in Australia will now be "football". This has been met with controversy and/or bemusement by followers of Australian rules football and rugby league, the most popular forms of "football" in Australia. Nevertheless some media outlets in some areas have accepted the usage.

In Canada, "football" refers to Gridiron (American football) or the closely related Canadian football, in both of its national languages. The usage of "soccer" is so uniform that even in Quebec the game is known as le soccer and the provincial governing body is the Federation de Soccer du Quebec.

In Ireland, Gaelic football is also played but nonetheless the governing bodies for soccer are the Football Association of Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, and the similarly titled Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland. Many Irish people refer to both codes simply as "football" while reserving the terms "soccer" and Gaelic for occasions when context cannot resolve any ambiguity.

The use of "soccer" in South Africa is common to white speakers of both English and Afrikaans. However, black communities generally use "football", and the country's national association is called the South African Football Association. The Afrikaans word for the sport is sokker.

Outside of these countries the word "soccer" has not been commonly used and "football" remains by far the most common name to describe the sport, being the name officially used by both FIFA, the sport's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee.

Here are more opinions and answers from other FAQ Farmers:

• Dictionary.com defined the word soccer as: 1) A game played on a rectangular field with net goals at either end in which two teams of 11 players each try to drive a ball into the other's goal by kicking, heading, or using any part of the body except the arms and hands. The goalie is the only player who may touch or move the ball with the arms or hands. 2) Football game in which two teams of 11 players try to kick or head a ball into the opponents' goal [syn: association football. Oxford English Dictionary defined soccer � noun, a form of football played with a round ball which may not be handled during play except by the goalkeepers, the object being to score goals by kicking or heading the ball into the opponents� goal. According to Columbia Encyclopedia, soccer, outdoor ball and goal game, also called association football or simply football. The first recorded game probably was that on a Shrove Tuesday in Derby, England, part of a festival to celebrate a victory over a contingent of Roman troops (A.D. 217). By 1175 the Shrove Tuesday soccer game was an annual event. The sport remained popular for centuries in England under the name football. But the advent of rugby (1823) as a variant led to confusion. The London Football Association was formed (1863) to further the game that emphasized the kicking of the ball. This became known as association football and then, through abbreviation, as soccer. It was rapidly adopted in continental Europe, where it still generally goes under the name football. Other related sports called football are popular in countries including Ireland and Australia.....From the Crystal Reference Encyclopedia, Football, Association (also known as soccer) An 11-a-side team game played on a grass or synthetic pitch (or field) measuring 90�120 m/100�130 yd in length, and 45�90 m/50�100 yd wide. At each end of the field is a goal net measuring 8 yd (7�3 m) wide by 8 ft (2�4 m) high. The object is to move the ball around the field, with the feet or head, until a player is in a position to put the ball into the net and score a goal. The goalkeeper defends the goal, and he is the only person allowed to touch the ball with his hands while it is in play, provided he touches it within his specifically defined area. The ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, and Romans, all played a form of football. In the early 19th-c it became an organized game in Britain, and was played in most universities and public schools. Standard rules were drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848, and in 1863 the Football Association was formed. The first FA Cup Final was played in 1872. Professionalism increased amongst northern clubs, and the game was legalized in 1885. The Football League was formed in 1888. The world governing body, the F�d�ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), was formed in Paris in 1904. The first World Cup was organized in Uruguay in 1930. The European governing body, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), was formed in 1954, and it controls the major European club competitions. Popular Understanding, even though the word soccer have origins in England from all my Non-American friends that reside in Europe, (England, Germany, Holland), Singapore and south America, when I mentioned to them the word Football, it means Football (known as Soccer in USA) but when I mentioned the word Soccer their understanding is that of a an American term used for football . World wide Soccer is known as Football as it was known also in America back in the earlier 1900 and before, in the other hand Soccer is known as American term for Football to them. The name was changed from Football to Soccer in the USA by some other influential reasons to promote the Gridiron (American Football) which is a variation of rugby as one of the main national sport of the country.

• The English league is called the Football Association. Association Football, was the term for the organized sport played in this league and the set of rules that regulated it. This was informally shortened to "soccer" (from "association"). In America, where a different sport came to be called american football (Gridiron), "soccer" came to be the way to refer to the sport the rest of the world calls football.

• The name soccer was adopted in North America to differentiate the sport from other forms of football played in the U.S (Gridiron) and Canada.

• To the person who thought that the league in England was called Football Association, you are right in one way but no one calls it that. It's currently called 'The Barclay's English Premier League.' The F.A is the commitee who regulates the sport nationwide. However, there are seperate championships held for the English Premier League (The Premiership) and the Football Association (The F.A. Cup). There are also many other soccer leagues in England, the Premiership is just the top league. It was formerly known as the First Division until 1992 when the "Premiership" was adopted. There is still a Second Division and the team who does the worst in a particular season in the Premiership will be dropped into the Second Division in the next season. Conversely, the team who does the best in the Second Division has a chance to be promoted to the Premiership for the next season.

• The term "soccer" came into use in England during the 1880s by university men from Oxford and Cambridge. The use of "association football" as distinct from "rugby football" was already in practice and "soccer" became a colloquialism formed by extending the second syllable of "association". Today it remains a primarily journalistic or conversational term in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, but in the United States, Canada its use is the rule. In its early days soccer in the United States was known as football and when the national governing body of soccer in the United States was formed in 1913, it was known as "The United States of America Football Association."� In later years that gave way to "The United States Soccer Football Association" (USSFA) and then to day's "United States Soccer Federation."�Many of the state associations in the U.S. contained "football" in their title when they were formed in the early years of the century.

Answer

Soccer was used once as a nickname for football, as rugger has been used as a nickname for rugby union. Football is known worldwide as football.

There are other sports that use the term football, american football, known globally as Gridiron, aussie rules football now known as simply aussie rules and gaelic football known as GAA.

The global use of the term football is for a sport in which the feet are mainly used to control the ball, so the only sport that fits this is english football.

The first sport to have official rules called football is association football, therefore the official sport of football is english football, which is governed globally by fifa.

In australia and japan they recently began using the term football instead of soccer as they wish to become a more global and increase their standing in world football.

Soccer is only used in the usa and canada, however the recent pro football team in canada is known as toronto football club.

Answer

Football is the official name for football, there is only one sport with this official name.

Americans and Canadians first played football in the early 1870's but found the game too technical for them. They then began playing rugby league and then invented Gridiron.

Gridiron was invented so athletes in north american could win at a sport by avoiding competition. Canadian football should not be confused with football as it is not football just a lesser version.

Football is played in every country in the world and known as football in most languages.

The first sport called football with defined rules is of course football.

a fat american who tried to invent a new word

First answer by Hutch. Last edit by CoDmaniac. Contributor trust: 1 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 303 [recommend question]