Dumb question: why was it renamed to soccer in North America?

Because English schoolboys made up the word "soccer" in the 19th century, and we copied it from them.

 

We should make this a sticky. We had threads liked this many times.

1)Soccer is not a North American term. It came from Great Britain. It came from the word "assoication football" to separate it from Rugby football, etc.

2) Most English speaking countries also used the term soccer. In Australia, they called themselves "socceroos" for the same reason. All other rugby nations such as South Africa, New Zealand, or Ireland(Gaelic football) also called the sport soccer. The well-known British soccer magaizne is called "World Soccer" for a reason.

3) I got a different responses everytime I posted this one. Even in UK, the rugby fans also called the sport "soccer". I recalled John Major in a speech on Euro 1996 kept using the term soccer. Some suggested that it was a class thing where the English prep schools always taughtb their kids to call it soccer because rugby was their main sport. I am not from UK. I always got different responses on this topic.

 

One small additional point.. The word football in England was not originally used because the game is played with the foot but because it was one of many sports lumped into that term to separate them from sports that were played on horseback.. Games on the foot and games on the horse..

 

Irish call it soccer too, why doesn't anyone ever make fun of them?

 

the reason we take the piss out of the yanks calling it that, is because they have no clue about prenounciation, saahhhhkrrr, its an abreviation of association football, and the 'er' is added as this was the trend at universities at the time for familiar terms, a - 'soc'-iation football, soc-er

also look at the way they thought that fussball was its own word in english, and not a german translation (reminds me of a joke- how does an american brain cell die? alone)

 

So that every newbie would ask that question as thier first post on Big Soccer.

 

I'll take good teeth and the ability to spell over "prenounciation" any day.

 

It is in the register form....

 

...but what you would give to weigh less than 140 kilos

 

thats the first time ive actually done a LMAO

 

Hey, I'm an American, my one brain cell can't convert kilos to pounds. I assume you're insinuating that I'm one of the countless obese americans. I guess that reminds me of the saying, I may be fat but you're stupid (see "prenounciation"), and I can diet!

 

if yr american then the chances are that yr both fat and stupid, just going by national averages. also if yr from texas, we'll, how do i say this, do yr parents look a little bit similar? er, how many fingers do u have? are u cross eyed? because chances are yr probably related to yrself in a variety of unnatural ways

 

Ignorance is bliss my friend, ignorance is bliss. , means I was having some fun. A piss taker, if you will. I thought that among their of array of allegedly superior qualities that Englishmen had a sense of humor. Guess not. And anytime you'd like to compare body fat and IQ, just let me know. Here's a hint, though, you originated the bloody language and you're the only one of us who can't (a) spell it or (b) use it in grammatically correct fashion. I won't bother to respond to your ignorant stereotyping about Texas except to say that once we overcame intermarriage we somehow found our way to becoming one of the top ten economies in the world, as a state. Life sure can become provincial when you're isolated on your little island.

 

please, an american looking down on others for being unsophisticated, u dont even own a passport. you can always tell what u need to about a country from what it leaves to posterity, the greek empire, the roman empire, the culture they left, the architecture, the literature and poetry, etc. in america what is there? they rebuild european monuments across las vegas, they worship dr phil and jerry springer, the average american reads less than six books in his or her lifetime, they only respect money ( proved by this yanks isistance that americans are worthwhile people beacause 'texas is the tenth richest...blah blah blah). fact; the only reason america has any money is by subjugating other countries with its war machine. yr president is a coke head, failed busineman being run by his daddys friends and ex business partners. he invades countries on the say so of weapons manufacturers and oil companies. how many schools in europe require students to walk through metal detectors to ensure their not carrying guns? how many september the 11th worth of americans are shot each year? how many iraqis have been killed in retaliation to 9/11, even thought they have nothing to do with it. i could go on forever, face it, yr country is a disagrace, i cant wait until the south and central americans wise up and deiced that enough is enough and they no longer wish to be raped by yr coroperations, raped by the us led imf, raped by unpayable debt to us banks, forced to pay back debt to us banks before they even pay for basic hospitals, sanitation, child care, schools.

no one likes america, the whole world is sick of it, and when its gone, it will be remembered as the most vulgur society in the history of this planet, you couldnt even call it civilisation, it falls so far short, absolute animals

 

Do you, as a loyal subject of the British empire, REALLY want to compare the extent to which America has achieved its wealth through exploitation with that of the UK. You've finally said something funny. You were at it before we were born. In fact, it's why we were born.

What's really funny about your blathering response is that you assume, somehow, that America is some monolithic (go look it up) culture in which everyone votes for George W. Bush, carries guns, is overweight, is not well-traveled, speaks only one language (amurcan), is addicted to reality tv (Springer's off the air here, though I here you can catch it in the UK) etc., etc. etc. See, it takes no imagination to rattle off all of those stereotypes, we know then too!! But if I have to defend being a yank, I'll do so gladly by telling you that what makes us great is that you can't pigeonhole us with ignorant, one-dimensional stereotypes. Many of us are multi-lingual, highly educated, well-traveled, unbigoted, culturally astute, and quite well aware that the current administration's actions have alienated much of the world from the US. So to lump everyone into one group just shows how small-minded and ignorant about the US you really are.

As for Texas, well, everyone knows it's even easier to stereotype Texans than it is Yanks, but my point about the economy was only to point out that your silly little kissing cousin reference doesn't quite match the reality of the vibrancy and dynamism of this place. I live in one of the most literate and well educated cities in the world, (there goes that Yank/Texan braggadocio again) so it's a little farcical to try to respond to your silly suggestions about ma and pa looking a little bit alike.

Too bad, though, at the end of the day, that you didn't just perceive that I was responding to your nonsense about "soccer" with some lighthearted banter. If you're not up to it, you're not up to it. If you're tired of hearing about America, I assume you can quit responding to threads about why things are the way they are in this country. Or just quit trolling.

 

why is it every american seems to think that because of what europeans were doing in their distant past gives them the right to bomb the s/h/i/t out of what ever country takes their fancy, im surprised how u didnt bring up the argument that 'you should thank us for saving the world from the commies', im not going to bother going into anymore detail, no one needs any more explanation anyway, suffice it to say that yes, if u are an average american, which u sound like, then u will probably think that all the people around u are cultured intellectuals and that the state of affairs u live in is the norm for the entire world. u cant be blamed for this delusion, after all, yr media is the most divisive on earth, u believe everything u see on fox news.

 

have you ever been to america? sure america has idiots in it like all countries do but this country isn't full of brain dead apes. there are cultured intellectual people here.

and what makes you so much better than an american?