Summary
In the US and Canada, the sport known worldwide as football is called soccer. This name comes from a shortened and altered version of "association football," a term created by students at Oxford University in the late 1800s to distinguish it from rugby football.Key Facts
- The word "soccer" comes from "association football," the formal name for the sport.
- Oxford University students in the 1880s shortened words and added "-er," turning "association" into "soccer."
- Rugby football and association football were two different sports, both popular at the time.
- "Soccer" was commonly used in England until the term "football" became more popular.
- The term spread to countries like the US, Canada, Australia, and South Africa as the sport grew worldwide.
- In the US and Canada, "football" usually means American football, which is a different sport related to rugby.
- Some British people today find the word "soccer" unusual, but it originally came from England.
- American speakers often apologize for saying "soccer," thinking the British dislike it, but the word is actually English in origin.
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