soccer
pronunciation
How to pronounce soccer in British English:
UK [ˈsɒkə(r)]
How to pronounce soccer in American English:
US [ˈsɑːkər]
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- Noun:
- a football game in which two teams of 11 players try to kick or head a ball into the opponents' goal
Word Origin
- soccer
- soccer: [19] Soccer was coined from Association football, a term introduced around 1870 for football played according to the rules of the Football Association (as opposed to Rugby football). The suffix -er was commonly used as a more-or-less meaningless addition to nouns in British public-school and university slang of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (footer ‘football’ was formed in the same way). Originally, in the 1890s, socker vied with soccer as the word’s spelling.
- soccer (n.)
- 1889, socca, later socker (1891), soccer (1895), originally university slang (with jocular formation -er (3)), from a shortened form of Assoc., abbreviation of association in Football Association (as opposed to Rugby football); compare rugger. An unusual method of formation, but those who did it perhaps shied away from making a name out of the first three letters of Assoc.
Example
- 1. She likes to watch her eleven-year-old son playing soccer .
- 2. And soccer city fell silent again .
- 3. He also owned a professional soccer team .
- 4. It is kick-off time for european soccer .
- 5. Two boys play soccer in a kingston neighborhood .