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.

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