John Rapp

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

⚽️🏈 Why Do Americans Call It Soccer? Blame England.

Americans get a lot of grief for calling it soccer. It is, the argument goes, a typically obtuse piece of American exceptionalism, a nation so convinced of its own importance that it renamed the world’s most popular sport just to be difficult. The rest of the world calls it football. The Americans call it something that sounds like a position in a law firm. How very them.

Except it isn’t them. Not originally, anyway.

The word soccer comes from Association Football, the formal name given to the game when the Football Association was founded in England in 1863. A few decades later, schoolboys at Rugby School and then Oxford, with that particular genius the English have for mangling perfectly good words, took “Assoc,” short for Association, and bolted on the suffix “-er,” a standard piece of Victorian public school slang used to make anything sound more cheerful. Rugby football became “rugger.” Association football became “soccer.”

The English invented the word. They used it cheerfully for decades. It appeared in British newspapers and formal writing well into the twentieth century without anyone apparently clutching their pearls about it.

There is a lovely wrinkle here, too. “Soccer” was largely the word of the upper class, while the working and middle classes preferred “football.” So when the upper class began losing its grip on British society from the 1960s onward, “soccer” went down with it, quietly dropped the way you abandon a phrase once it becomes unfashionable, and then pretend you never said it at all.

By the time America was building its own professional leagues, “soccer” had become entirely natural there, partly to distinguish the sport from American football, which had arrived earlier and planted its flag on the word “football” with the confidence of someone who got there first and has no intention of moving.

So the next time someone sneers that Americans can’t even name the sport correctly, you can point out that Americans are faithfully preserving a word the English coined, used for generations, then quietly abandoned and somehow turned into evidence of foreign stupidity.

Which, when you think about it, is a very English thing to do.

Stay connected,
Follow @Gandalv

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@LauraRbnsn Woof - sorry to see the s***show that is your replies. Only meant that even with top of the line care in a hospital, several women that I care deeply for nearly passed giving birth. Just crazy that this still happens in 2026.

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@LauraRbnsn Hard to read after several people very close went thru traumatic births despite being in a traditional hospital setting. So thankful for the amazing medical teams out there and so sad to see this tragic outcome for the family. Baffling that women are still dying in childbirth.

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@xmuse_ So hypothetically, should I have a heart attack while traveling in London, I get to convalesce here, correct?! 😋

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@NormSNLJokes Quintessential Norm. Hit all my sarcastic humor buttons always. RIP.

This one almost hit his "perfect joke" ideal where the setup and punchline were the same.

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@tomowenmorgan Would be fascinating if you were able to get any for a chat! With the very eclectic way that several of them think and approach the world, I would imagine that they might tap into it without even recognizing it.

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@JohnRentoul Anyone who is a fan of Journey knew what was "South Detroit" 🤣😉

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@LiterateIndy Would love a chance to hop in a time machine and visit the English Hotel on the circle during its prime (sure, if I meet Doc Brown and his Delorean, there is plenty I might do first. But that is definitely on the list!)

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@MebFaber The Dhandho Investor by @MohnishPabrai

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@tonydindy He was so much fun to watch! Hate that Vegas made him walk away. Used to still hear little bits of commentary or stories from time to time but been a long time now. Hope he's doing well

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@ZachOsterman Oh boy do I have a story for you about 2020 March Madness. I thought I had planned the best lay-z-boy opening weekend...

😂🤣😂

[La Sagrada Família @sagradafamilia]

We see the tower of Jesus Christ illuminated for the first time!
The light show, starting from the base up to the illumination of the cross, culminated with a composition of lights guided by drones that traced the figure of Gaudí and the phrase “first love, then technique”.

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@tonydindy And you have to change it every 10 weeks 🤣😂

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@Mark_J_Boyle @nyknicks Ha! Apparently, he has never heard of Charles Oakley or Anthony Mason. Pretty sad for a Knicks fan

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@dieworkwear I'll gladly trade investment knowledge if you'll spend a day helping me learn how to dress and upgrade my wardrobe. Deal?

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@LiterateIndy Nevermind! Hit that Google button - pre-dated the Lilly family with the original owners/designers/builders of the estate

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@LiterateIndy Curious of the context here - were they members of the Lilly family? How did they come to have their joint ceremony at the estate?

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@puppyeh1 Somehow, after seeing Ferrari's Luce, this looks somewhat nice.

(That's how bad the Luce is...)

[John Rapp @JohnRapp85]

@Team_Penske @smclaughlin93 @deximaging Chevrons are back?!?!