What happened to "soccer"?

I don’t mean the sport. I mean the word itself. Why did the native British word “soccer” go into exile, wandering through the other countries of the world, and getting mocked as an alien when it returned to its home shores?

I think it comes down to the British class system. As usual.

English football as a village game goes back to the Middle Ages. They could be casual kick-abouts. They could be mob games between rival villages, sometimes taking place on festival days. Both sides might be trying to force the ball into the centre of the opposing village. Presumably on those occasions the aggressive chanting and the crowd violence were combined with the ball-kicking, instead of being carefully segregated as in the modern game, In one of the scenes of “King Lear”, the Fool trips up Goneril’s steward and calls him a “base football player”. Strictly speaking, of course, the Fool is the one who was being base, and he should have been sent off the pitch.

In due course, the sport was taken up by the public schools. When the Duke of Wellington observed that the battle of Waterloo had been won on the playing-fields of Eton, he was referring to the way that the manoeuvres of large numbers of boys on the football field were effectively training them for managing large numbers of men on the battle-field. Incidentally, it may be as well to remind Americans that “public schools” in the British sense are designed for the elite; it means the exact opposite of “public school” in the American sense.

The official story of the origin of the “Rugby football” variant is that one William Webb Ellis, a pupil at that school, decided to take the ball in his hands and run with it, “with a fine disregard for the rules of the game as they existed at the time”.

In Victorian times, the forms of the game were consolidated into two main versions. The round-ball, feet-only version was organised by the Football Association. This quickly became a professional game, played and watched mainly by the working-class. The main alternative was the ball-handling, oval ball game organised by the Rugby Union, which made a point of being strictly “amateur” and thus keeping out the working-class, who could not afford to spend time on the game if they were not going to get paid.

There was also the complication of the Rugby League, played by professionals and splitting away from the Rugby Union on that very issue. They were not just working-class, but also northerners, which put them even further beyond the pale. The class difference between Rugby football and Association football is not rigid, but it’s there.

Now one of the slang habits of the upper class at the time (and it may still persist) was abbreviating words and adding the suffix “-er”. For example, if they were thinking of having champagne for breakfast and going to watch a rugby game at Twickenham, this might come out as “We’ll have champers for brekker, and then go down to Twickers for the rugger.” Once we know about that habit, it’s easy to recognise that “Association football” was turned into “soccer” on exactly the same principle.

One of the implications; not only was the word “soccer” upper-class in origin, but the higher classes, familiar with the rugby version, were the only people who really needed a distinct word for the alternative. The working class were only interested in the round-ball version of football, so they were more likely to call that game “football”, pure and simple.

But of course the nations of Europe and Latin America and Asia who imported the round-ball game did not know about or care about these social distinctions, so they would call it “socero” or “fotebol” or similar with complete indifference.

My old children’s encyclopaedia (Odhams, 1957) still carefully distinguishes between Association Football and Rugby Football. Then the Sixties happened.

During the Fifties, the upper classes of England were still dominating the cultural world, however much they might have lost over the years in economic and political power. They were the celebrities in the gossip columns. The accent frequently labelled as “cut-glass”, for some reason, (the accent which Americans think of as quintessentially British) was the standard voice of the B.B.C.. Then came the dramatic revolution of the Sixties and the national culture became working-class culture, for practical purposes. That is the real significance of the Beatles. Possibly as a result, the word “soccer” suffered a very working-class fate; it got made redundant.

Now any public discussion of “football” meant the round-ball game, especially after a certain afternoon in 1966 (“Hurst is running up the field. He’s got- Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over! It is now!”) And if the round-ball game has the word “football” assigned to it, what need of any other word? Why would anyone need to be more specific and add “Association”?

So the word “soccer” tearfully packed its bags and took passage in the Mayflower, to find refuge in the United States and support from its cousins in the rest of the world.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I read this over my morning coffee and felt the need to say thanks!

Your easily digestible writing style mixed with a lighthearted yet informative take on the subject was the perfect way to start my day!

Sincerely,
~meathead

a reply to: DISRAELI

I don't know what happened to 'soccer', but I remember me and my siblings using the word quite freely in the 1960s/70s/?80s. It and 'football' were used interchangeably. But 'soccer' was preferred back then, I think because it was seen as more 'street'. 'Football' was the correct term and 'soccer' was the slang equivalent for the great unwashed.

Then something happened. The US became interested in the sport and picked up on the fact that Brits called it soccer, so that's what they called it. When the British population became aware of that, they unconsciously started using 'football' instead. Maybe because 'soccer' suddenly sounded American.

I think that's all it was.

a reply to: CJCrawley
A very good case for a rival theory.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Thanks for the history. As Mike pointed out, it was well written and easy to follow. Interesting, too.

Did something prompt you to write this, or did you just feel like sharing a random topic?

a reply to: JefeFeesh
More a case of feeling like posting a random topic, which I haven't been doing lately. Also I was about to post it on another forum, and felt obliged to give this one priority.

Soccer? What’s that, only two countries in the world play soccer, Canada and the U.S. the rest of the world plays football.

It went the way of Faggots and the Dodo bird.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I can only add to this some foreign language trivia.
in german the round ball game is fussball which is a litteral translation from football. This threw me off a little when I first came accross the american English language, where football was used to talk about the oval ball game.
That was always rugby for me.

Around here they settled to say american football. For what the Americans call football.

Indeed soccer is a therm I would attribute to street slang, I guess I learnd something today

a reply to: Terpene
Another complication, in case you don't realise, is the difference between rugby and the American version. I don't know all the details, but the obvious one is that Americans crash into each other well-protected, rugby players crash into each other without protection.

a reply to: DISRAELI


Those pads just mean they hit 3x as hard as ruggers.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: Terpene
Another complication, in case you don't realise, is the difference between rugby and the American version. I don't know all the details, but the obvious one is that Americans crash into each other well-protected, rugby players crash into each other without protection.

I still check out the boys down under in Fiji when I see they are on here.

Having played Rugby and Football, I can tell you football is slower on the setup but meaner on the plays. We can knock hell out of each other and need the pads. It is gentlemanly to knock hell out of all but the defenseless not looking.

I see Ruggers going soccer style with their speed of play between plays a bit faster. Football makes the team with the ball set up and allow the defense to see where they are standing still till the ball is snapped back. It also allows the guys without the ball to be knocked to the ground to protect the ball runner. Now that is the real difference. No hitting allowed if you don't have the ball in Rugby. Vanderbilt Rugby got peaved at us one game for hitting football style. We were a new club and needed to learn the ropes.

My 1st live scrimmage in Rugby no knowing the game yet, I was in trouble several times for blocking downfield. I also didn't understand the way the ball was shared after we were "tackled". It didn't take long for me to learn it and love it. I scored a touchdown American style and got yelled at by the coach for not taking the ball to the center of the end zone to "touch it down". I did the cross the line in the corner and slammed it down NFL Style. I was pumped until the coach put me in the scrum. That is like Football there matching up to push. I was a wrestler at the same time too so even though 5-10 I was sent out there holding up a hooker!. We had fun while I played.

Given that we in the US have the game called football which is nothing at all like soccer or really rugby, it makes sense we adopted and kept soccer to distinguish the two sports. Otherwise, it would be confusing.

Thanks for explaining where we got the word from though. I always thought it had something to do with "socking" (as in kicking really hard) the ball.

a reply to: ketsuko
Of course it makes sense at your end. I was just struck by the irony of some young Britons dismissing it as an Americanism.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I would like to see more of these editorials from you !

Any subject really.. being American I find day to day English culture fascinating .





Respectfully,
~meathead

a reply to: Mike Stivic
That's encouraging, because there's a short list at the back of my mind that I've been thinking about doing.
I'm not sure whether the next one will be on "The mythology of Full English Breakfast", or on what Shakespeare says about using the right hand side of the road.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Brekkers sounds like a good place to start....

😉




Your going to need to come up with a catchy overreaching title..

DISREALI Cares?

Instead of gears...

Speaking of gears don't you drive on that side of the road because you barbarians were throwing poop out of windows when you had horse drawn carriages?

👀☝

Or is that another lie my 5th grade history teacher learnt me??

Respectfully,
~meathead

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: ketsuko
Of course it makes sense at your end. I was just struck by the irony of some young Britons dismissing it as an Americanism.

Quite. I played "soccer" as an American kid and was told it was called football everywhere else. I was very surprised to learn "soccer" was originally a British term. Thanks very much for the in-depth explanation.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I my part of the world long ago it was called the uppies versus the doonies ,or the top part of the town versus the lower half once a year and it was madness.

I got offered s forms when I was young at school and laughed at the offer ,many years later I heard how much the top paid football ,the clue is in the name ! Was getting paid and I laughed long and hard at the amount as I earned a lot more with 0 hassle .

Fast forward 10 years and I am working in a footballers home these guys were on 30k a week by then and international players for their country .

The guy came back from training the next day shocked at the story I told him about player wages in the 80s and had asked his coaches ,who verified the story to him of how a tradesman was earning more than a pro football player , I know at least 3-4 former players all international ,most left on retirement and got normal jobs now they are millionaires at 18 if they play in England and do well 350k a week the good ones get .

And just a lol that bus that stopped in my little village one afternoon with football players in it we gave them a kick around with me being the goalkeeper ,they went on to win a European cup with some guy called sir Alex Ferguson in charge .

£21 pw being a s- forms wage versus what I could earn at 16 was a no contest and not having to share a council house with a load of other people was a win win for me .

Ps do shinty versus hurling next . That really confuses them

a reply to: stonerwilliam
The Football League was enforcing a "maximum wage" of £20 a week until 1961.
It was a "working-class" game...

P.S. You're the one who knows the difference between shinty and hurling. You can do that one.