Antedating of "soccer"? [was: Antedating of "Rugger"]
Joel S. Berson
Berson at ATT.NET
Sat Jun 21 14:17:34 UTC 2014
Doesn't this also antedate "soccer" by one year? OED2 1889 (and
spelled "socca'").
And if soccer was actually 16 or 17 years old at Oxford in 1888,
perhaps an even earlier quotation can be found.
(Wikipedia tells me the Football Association, whose name is alleged
to have led to the game's being called "soccer", was formed in 1863.)
Joel
At 6/20/2014 09:09 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>rugger, n.2 (OED 1889)
>
>1888 _Oxford Magazine_ 15 Feb. 224 (Google Books) Golf is perhaps
>seven or eight years old in Oxford, lawn-tennis about ten, football
>_seu_ Rugger, _sire_ Soccer, not more than sixteen or seventeen.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
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