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It comes from "asSOCiation football", an early name for the game used by the English as a nickname for football...to distinguish it from Rugby football.

In the few nations where football is not the #1 sport then its nickname soccer is used...for example in America to distinguish from American football (Gridiron)

Another answer:Same as the origins of soccer as a game, the origin of the word soccer can be attributed to different countries. As you probably know already, the game itself wasn't invented by the English, but it was them who popularized it and organized it under a strict set of rules.

Nowadays, the word soccer is usually attributed to Americans, but just like the above example, it was not the Americans who first used or invented the word, they were simply the ones that used it to full effect.

So where did the word soccer come from? I'll try to solve this mystery in the article ahead. You probably know of the slight dispute revolving around the word "soccer". The English will never agree to use the term "soccer" around what they call "football" for centuries.

Paradoxally, the origin of the word soccer comes from…you guessed, England. But in order to fully understand what I'm talking about, keep reading ahead as I'll share some of the beautiful history of soccer.

The date of October 26th 1863 is to soccer what March 4th 1787 is to the United States. It's the day that several soccer clubs all around England gathered up in London and formed The Football Association, the first soccer organization up to that date.

The reason I compared this date to the day the United States Constitution was adopted because the Football Association organized the game into a sportive "constitution" called the Laws of Football. The term "soccer" appeared shortly after, being an abbreviation from "Football Association" (from assoc.) and although not as heavily used as soccer, it was a short, light form to describe the phenomenon.

Reportedly, the man who stands at the origin of the word soccer is Charles Wreford Brown, an Oxford student who always preferred shortened versions of words, such as brekkers for breakfast, or rugger for rugby.

Soccer gained popularity in the United States later than in the rest of Europe and since the Americans already had a use for the world "football" in understanding the sport of American Football, a middle option was tried on in between 1945 and 1975, when the organization that controlled soccer in the USA was called the "United States Soccer Football Association".

Besides being long, the name was still confusing so after 1974 it simply adopted the name of "United States Soccer Federation" and the word "soccer" would define the sport in the US area ever since.

It's often mistakenly thought that the United States are the only country that uses the term soccer for what is traditionally known as football in Europe, Asia and other parts of the World. However, the new name was adopted by other countries, specifically those that associated football to a different sport prior to soccer being popular. Such countries include Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some parts of Ireland.

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13y ago

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