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If we're arguing "majority makes right": the clear majority of native English speakers are Americans (about 65%). But I'm not going to say English people shoul

If we're arguing "majority makes right": the clear majority of native English speakers are Americans (about 65%). But I'm not going to say English people should start calling it soccer so I don't get confused. Let everyone speak their native language; there's nothing wrong with it!

billfruit 6y ago
Yes, but it seems a tad inconsiderate for presume 'American' usage as the default one is all. I understand the original article may have written with an exclusively 'American' audience in mind, but writers and editors could have avoided that assumption by putting some thought into choosing a more 'international' usage, if only to gently nudge those Americans into a broader worldview, who might have an insular, exceptional view of their country, as goes an often expressed peeve.
- umanwizard 6y ago
  Is it inconsiderate to post English-language articles at all, given that the majority of the world's population doesn't understand English, and it's chauvinistic to assume our own language is "the default" ?
- philwelch 6y ago
  Canadians and Australians also use the word “football” to refer to their national forms of football, which are called as such because they are more closely related to rugby, which separated from association football in the mid-19th century. Ultimately, the word “soccer” is of English origin, broadly understood in England, and refers exclusively to association football. In any international context, the word “football” is ambiguous at best, and it’s chauvinistic for anyone to insist that the term must exclusively apply to their own country’s version of the game.
  - billfruit 6y ago
    Australians generally call "soccer" as football. Recently their national soccer administrative body also renamed themselves as the Football Federation of Australia. I think "soccer" is an Americanism as well.
    - philwelch 6y ago
      > I think "soccer" is an Americanism as well. It isn't. It was originally Oxford slang derived from "association football": > The rules of association football were codified in the United Kingdom by the Football Association in 1863, and the name association football was coined in the UK to distinguish the game from the other versions of football played at the time, in particular rugby football. The word soccer is an abbreviation of association (from assoc.) and first appeared in English private schools and universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker").[1][2][3][4] The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford-Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football (see Oxford -er). Clive Toye noted "they took the third, fourth and fifth letters of Association and called it SOCcer." ... > For nearly a hundred years after it was coined, soccer was an accepted and uncontroversial alternative in Britain to football, often in colloquial and juvenile contexts, but was also widely used in formal speech and in writing about the game.[6] "Soccer" was a term used by the upper class whereas the working and middle class preferred the word "football"; as the upper class lost influence in British society from the 1960s on, "football" supplanted "soccer" as the most commonly used and accepted word. There is evidence that the use of soccer is declining in Britain and is now considered there as an American English term.[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football In other words, even in England, the word "football" was originally ambiguous enough to also refer to rugby, which is why England coined the term "soccer" to distinguish the two sports. American and Canadian football are both descended from rugby football.

billfruit 6y ago

Yes, but it seems a tad inconsiderate for presume 'American' usage as the default one is all. I understand the original article may have written with an exclusively 'American' audience in mind, but writers and editors could have avoided that assumption by putting some thought into choosing a more 'international' usage, if only to gently nudge those Americans into a broader worldview, who might have an insular, exceptional view of their country, as goes an often expressed peeve.

umanwizard 6y ago
Is it inconsiderate to post English-language articles at all, given that the majority of the world's population doesn't understand English, and it's chauvinistic to assume our own language is "the default" ?
philwelch 6y ago
Canadians and Australians also use the word “football” to refer to their national forms of football, which are called as such because they are more closely related to rugby, which separated from association football in the mid-19th century. Ultimately, the word “soccer” is of English origin, broadly understood in England, and refers exclusively to association football. In any international context, the word “football” is ambiguous at best, and it’s chauvinistic for anyone to insist that the term must exclusively apply to their own country’s version of the game.
- billfruit 6y ago
  Australians generally call "soccer" as football. Recently their national soccer administrative body also renamed themselves as the Football Federation of Australia. I think "soccer" is an Americanism as well.
  - philwelch 6y ago
    > I think "soccer" is an Americanism as well. It isn't. It was originally Oxford slang derived from "association football": > The rules of association football were codified in the United Kingdom by the Football Association in 1863, and the name association football was coined in the UK to distinguish the game from the other versions of football played at the time, in particular rugby football. The word soccer is an abbreviation of association (from assoc.) and first appeared in English private schools and universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker").[1][2][3][4] The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford-Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football (see Oxford -er). Clive Toye noted "they took the third, fourth and fifth letters of Association and called it SOCcer." ... > For nearly a hundred years after it was coined, soccer was an accepted and uncontroversial alternative in Britain to football, often in colloquial and juvenile contexts, but was also widely used in formal speech and in writing about the game.[6] "Soccer" was a term used by the upper class whereas the working and middle class preferred the word "football"; as the upper class lost influence in British society from the 1960s on, "football" supplanted "soccer" as the most commonly used and accepted word. There is evidence that the use of soccer is declining in Britain and is now considered there as an American English term.[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_association_football In other words, even in England, the word "football" was originally ambiguous enough to also refer to rugby, which is why England coined the term "soccer" to distinguish the two sports. American and Canadian football are both descended from rugby football.