page_title: Football (word)
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Football (word) / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Football à Barnet, gravure de 1750.
context_page_description: The English word football may mean any one of several team sports, depending on the national or regional origin and location of the person using the word.
  So where English is a first language the unqualified use of the word football is used to refer to the most popular code of football in that region. The sports most frequently referred to as simply football are Association football, American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league football and rugby union football.
  Of the 45 national FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, 43 use football in their organisations' official names. Soccer is the prevailing term for association football in the United States and Canada, where other codes of football are dominant. In 2005, Australia's association football governing body changed its name from soccer to football to align with the general international usage of the term. In 2006, New Zealand decided to follow suit.
  There are also many other languages where the common term for association football is phonetically similar to the English term football.
context_section_description: An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England:  "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David".  Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.  Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "during the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".
  Although the accepted etymology of the word football, or "foot ball", originated in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, this may be a false etymology. An alternative explanation has it that the word originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.  These sports were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports more often enjoyed by aristocrats. In some cases, the word has been applied to games which involved carrying a ball and specifically banned kicking. For example, the English writer William Hone, writing in 1825 or 1826, quotes the social commentator Sir Frederick Morton Eden, regarding a game –  which Hone refers to as "Foot-Ball" –  played in the parish of Scone, Perthshire:
  The game was this: he who at any time got the ball into his hands, run [sic] with it till overtaken by one of the opposite part; and then, if he could shake himself loose from those on the opposite side who seized him, he run on; if not, he threw the ball from him, unless it was wrested from him by the other party, but no person was allowed to kick it. [Emphasis added.]
  Conversely, in 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games", suggesting that "football" was in fact being differentiated from games that involved other parts of the body.
  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) traces the written use of the word "football" (as "foteballe"), referring to the game, to 1409. The first recorded use of the word to refer to the ball was in 1486, and the first use as a verb in 1599. 
  The word "soccer" originated as an Oxford "-er" slang abbreviation of "association", and is credited to late nineteenth century English footballer, Charles Wreford-Brown. However, like the William Webb Ellis rugby story, it is believed to be most likely apocryphal. There is also the sometimes-heard variation, "soccer football".
caption: A French card circa 1750, depicting "Foot Ball"
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