Lost Colony TavernPost, December 2, 2022 - 12:37pm

You know the biggest rivalry in sports. Whose side are you on: Team "Soccer" or Team "Football"?

It seems the whole world calls the sport “football” except for a few stubborn holdouts, most notably the Americans. But why?

Believe it or not, the word "soccer" was coined by the ENGLISH! The people that affectionately call their Prince William "Wills" and their £5 and £10 notes "fivers" and "tenners" are responsible for shortening "Association Football" to just "Assoc." — which, when written, looks like it might be pronounced "Assock." In late 1800s England, at Oxford, there was also a fad of adding “-er” to some words. And thus, "soccer" was born.

In England. ???????

And you know what? The English loved the term "soccer” as seen in this screenshot of a column in The Daily Telegraph from 1899. Unfortunately for us poor Americans, around this time association football was growing in popularity on college campuses in the U.S., where there was another popular "football" — American football. English association football rules and teams were influential in the U.S., and so the name "soccer" was quickly adopted, too. In fact, the word became common in many English-speaking regions around the world, to clarify which sport was meant: American football, rugby football, or association football. "Soccer" united the English-speaking world. But then, the English went back to "football"

The slang term "soccer" fell out of use in the U.K. in the mid-20th century in favor of "football” and no one informed the Americans. In the U.S., "soccer" continued to be the standard term for the sport, even though the English returned to the original term "football.”

Here at Lost Colony Tavern, whether you call it “football” or “soccer,” we’ll continue to broadcast all your favorite games of the world’s most popular sport from all across the globe along with your favorite British foods, beers, and spirits “from the British Isles to the Barrier Islands!”