If I’m talking to an English speaker from outside of the US, is there any confusion if I say “soccer”?
For example, when I was in college a friend asked for a “torch”. I was confused for quite some time, because I didn’t know it was another word for “flashlight”. Does the same thing happen with the word “soccer”? Should I clarify by saying, “…or football”?
Thank you!
You do realize the word Soccer for the actual game originated in England right?
It just so happened that “Rugby football” got shortened to Rugby and this “Associa toon (Socker) football” got shortened to Football.
Since since an American sport came around the same time called “Football” they kept the name “Soccer” for Association Football.
Just letting you know a little back story.
A small article about it can be found here. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer And there are plenty more info out there about it.
I’m going to call them soccer football and American football from now on
I’m going to be an insufferable pedant and reply, “Do you mean association football or rugby football?” whenever anyone uses either :P
For a while, the governing body in the US was the United State Soccer Football Association, so you’re good, and it’s also some good trolling of the zealots on either side of the “debate.”
I refer to Soccer the football played with your foot and then the American version as " Egg-ball" played with your hands.
That said I’m also Canadian and for many years in our small “hand egg-ball” league we had 2 teams with very similar club names called the Rough Riders and the Roughriders so I shouldn’t be throwing so many stones…
I love it!
It would require more research than I’m willing to do, but the only part of that article that set off my sports-history-nerd Spidey Sense was this:
I don’t know that anyone actually involved in playing or codifying the game ever used “gridiron football” in anything like the same official way that Association football or Rugby football were used. It feels much more like outside observers trying to impose logical categories from afar, British exceptionalism at its finest. AFAIK, gridiron was always used as a nickname for the field, and the sport itself was only ever widely referred to as “football,” American exceptionalism at its finest.
I’d have to say American Exceptionalism at its finest when it comes to sports is the World Series.
I work in professional sports (in a tangentially related field, at least) and with NFL in particular for almost 25 years and I don’t think I’ve ever encountered “gridiron football” as a turn of phrase.
you see terms like ‘gridiron’ for football, ‘grapplers’ for wrestlers, and ‘harriers’ for (cross country) runners frequently (or overused) in small town newspapers covering local high schools.
I’ve been pissed that the Ravens didn’t incorporate the Maryland flag which literally has elements designed to emulate the “gridiron bars of a fortress” since the day their uniforms were unveiled because of that relationship.
I’ve heard it for sure
Agreed, and I’m not sure it was EVER used that way. I’ve only ever seen it written, and in places where someone wanted to distinguish it from the other codes without giving the impression they were excluding Canadian football. It’s a useful term in the right context, but it’s not “the full name”. Contrast to soccer, where many teams have “Association Football Club” right there in their names as “AFC.”
American football is (semi-)frequently called gridiron in Australia. I’d say most people would know what sport you meant if you called it that.
We usually call soccer, soccer but soccer nerds and those with close English heritage will call it football to feel superior.