Ian wrote:mistermack wrote:laklak wrote:Dunno why they need to make up new words for everything. What's wrong with "standing in line", anyway? And why would you name a sport after an insect? Don't make no sense.
There's a lot more to queueing than standing in line. I wouldn't expect foreigners to understand.
And why would you take the silly game of throwball, and call it football? Especially when there is already a proper game called football.
Another reason why the US and UK can't possibly merge. We wouldn't change the name of our sport of football, and we wouldn't expect the Brits to start calling their game soccer.
We have every reason to expect the Brits to call their game soccer. The English were the first to call the game soccer in the first place. The word soccer was coined in England, not in the US and it was used by English college students in the late 1800s to distinguish Association Football from Rugby Football. Association -- AsSOCiation -- Soc-er Football -- Rugby -- Rugg-er Football. Rugger Football became Rugby. There was no other popular kind of football there so Association Football or Soccer Football became just Football. In the US, Rugger Football became more popular, and Soccer Football never took off much, so we dropped the Rugger part, and just called it football. And Soccer football remained, but was just called Soccer.
Add to that, the Canadians and the Ozzies call soccer soccer, and football football, with the Ozzies having Ozzie Rules Football and the Canucks having Canadian Football. I think just a few years ago the Ozzies officially changed their nomenclature to call soccer football "soccer" instead of football. If the Ozzies can do it, so can the Brits. And, since the Brits were the first ones to call it soccer, then it must, of course, be the proper name for the game -- as we all know, the Brits would never have done something if it wasn't the best and most appropriate thing to do. Therefore, Soccer it is ! Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
