soccer

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A game in which two teams of eleven players try to kick a ball into the other team's goal.

   We play soccer in the park every Saturday morning.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Soccer was formed in the late 19th century as a shortened form of Association football, the official name used to distinguish the game from rugby football. Its formation followed the same pattern as rugger from rugby.

Originally British English; as an abbreviation for association football, via abbreviation assoc. + -er (suffix); earlier socker (1885), also socca (1889), with soccer attested 1888. Compare contemporary rugger, from rugby. Similarly constructed coinages from the same period include: brekker (“breakfast”), fresher (“freshman”) and footer (“football”). See Oxford -er.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary