Why Call it Soccer Instead of Football?

With the World Cup teams still going strong, there are some people, primarily non-Americans, who are wondering why we call the sport soccer instead of football. Soccer is played with the feet, to be sure, since no handling of the ball is allowed while the game is played. But the word itself comes from "Association football", with the "soc" in association being transformed into the popular word soccer.

American football is more similar to rugby, as it is called, in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, except for Australia and New Zealand. Rugby allows the handling of the ball, as the game's rules dictate, so that a player can hold onto the ball and pass yardage more easily. There is no rugby yardage equivalent in soccer, either. Even the balls used in the sports are different in shape and color: American football uses a pigskin, brown, laced ball that resembles a dirigible, while soccer's ball is black and white and perfectly round. Maybe the only thing both games have in common is they are played on sports turf, but that's it.

There are a few other possible reasons and derivations for the use of the word soccer:

One player physically socks another while trying to gain hold of the ball with his feet (during the World Cup, it is not unusual for a player to grab the clothing of another player in an attempt to move him out of the way).

The game originally used a socle to get the ball onto the field. A socle is a small platform for a column or trophy, in this case, the World Cup award. That would make more sense, "soccer" coming from socle.

The word soccer comes from Socrates, that popular philosopher of Ancient Greece. That does not sound likely on the surface, but the argument of why call it soccer rather than football is, well, a bit Socratic in itself.

http://www.slate.com/id/2255959

http://www.mcall.com/opinion/explain/mc-explain-soccer-20100615,0,3063079.story