Trivia: names for sportsball

[pauamma]

There are (that I'm aware of) two languages or major language dialects in which football isn't called "football" or a phonetic rendering.

One is el_GR, which uses the calque ποδοσφέρί.

The other is en_US, which uses "soccer", but https://www.etymonline.com/word/soccer#etymonline_v_23809 hints this meaning originated in the UK. I'm not sure (if that's right) when and how it was displaced by "football" everywhere but the US (and maybe Canada).

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Japanese also uses "soccer" (sakkaa) via the US. Australia often but not always uses soccer, because we have 3-4 kinds of "football" depending how you count it.

[pauamma]

Thanks.

[madfilkentist]

The German Fußball is a calque (foot + ball), even though it sounds close to a phonetic rendering.

[pauamma]

*nod* Thanks.

[thekumquat]

Soccer is short for Association Football, so meant the codified civilised version of football with rules established by the Football Association, as opposed to the huge quasi-fights between entire villages that might last a few days.

The word soccer was mostly used among public school types (that's posh private mostly-boarding schools), to distinguish from Rugby Football or rugger (imagine more-violent American Football without the padding). Everyone else not interested in rugby carried on calling football football.

Presumably the proponents of proper football in the US had to fight to distinguish it from American Football so resorted to the term soccer.

[pauamma]

Thanks for confirming my understanding of the etymonline entry.

[sollers]

In Welsh it’s the translation “pêl droed”. Does that count?

[pauamma]

https://wals.info/valuesets/87A-wel says Welsh uses the noun-adjective order, so if Google Translate's claim that they mean "ball" and "foot" in this order is correct (and assuming "droed" is or works as an adjective), I'd say it counts as a calque.