Why is football called “ocer” in the U.S. and Canada?

In the United States and Canada, this sport is called “osocer”. But why use this designation? And does he bother other places where football has a special place in sports culture?

When I was a child in England, the word "sococcer" was completely acceptable”, says Stefan Szymanski, reports BBC, broadcast Periscope.

Emeritus professor at Michigan University, who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s, shows that the debate between the use of terms “football” and “occer” has always seemed strange.

I ask my friends: Do you remember? Maybe it's a fake memory. Has this word ever been a problem? ) I started talking to people about the matter, and the consensus was that in the 1970 ' s, there seemed to be no problem with its use. ”

Szymanski's interest was later turned into a scientific research.

He explains that, in his beginnings, football was quite a sport “eltar”.

“The people who founded England's Football Federation in 1863 were graduates of Oxford, who had attended elite public schools”, he said.

The game played according to the rules of the Federation of Football became known as “assocation football”He wrote John M. Cunningham in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

This appointment also helped distinguish it from another very popular sport: regbia.

There were two games at the time: the one was called "Rugby football" and the other "exsociation football" ”, Szymanski explains.

Brekker, rugger, socer

Among the wealthy university students of the 1880s and 1890s was the custom of cutting words and adding the background “-er”, forming a type of jargon.

So instead of saying "breakfast," they said "brecker." ”

For regbis, they used the term “r”.

But how was the word “ocer” born?

There is a theory, Szymanski says, although he warns that “nobody is fully safe”.

According to this theory, these creative students took the section “oc” from the middle of the word “assocation” and added the background “-er”, thus creating the word “ocer”.

Of course, no one knows for sure, but what people are convinced about is that this word comes from Oxford. There are many documentary sources confirming it was created by students there. ”

“Scoccer” spreads to Canada, the U.S. and wider

Sports historian Andy Mitchell identified “at least” three cases of use of words “soccer” or “socker” in school magazines at the end of 1885, in various parts of England.

My <x0.>intuition is that a non-identical item” was already being used in spoken language and released in print earlier that year (1885), in another still unidentified issue, Mitchell wrote on his blog, Scottish Sports History.

In time, the option “socker” came out of use, while “socer” remained in use.

The word began spreading to other continents at the same time when sports itself were gaining popularity, and today the term “ocer<x1 is often used in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada.

In the United States, the term “football” refers to American football.

“Everything is connected”, Szymanski says. The U.S. “Versus evolved from regbia, but it also contains elements of football. ”

“They're like close cousins and that's why American football became popular in about the same period that the word '%soccere was created, during 1880 and 1890. ”

While British newspapers preferred the term “football”, they continued to use the word “socer” until the 1980s, according to the analysis conducted by Szymanski and his colleague, Silke-Maria Weinack.

In time, however, <x0football” became the dominant term.

Szymanski says both terms continue to be discussed in university audiences.

One thing Americans tend to do is apologize when they use the word "socerrecer" and say: I'm sorry, I was talking about the football, because they think the British are sensitive to this case.

And they're right. Some of them are.

I think it's very kind of them to apologize, but I say, There's an English word help you to use it.