Mientras devoraba el último issue de The New Yorker (como de costumbre, en la bañera) me crucé con un artículo de Hendrik Hertzberg sobre la relación de los gringos con el fútbol. A propósito del tema digamos que, a pesar de que el hombre desarrolla muy bien su argumento y vale la pena leerlo, suena un poco a disco rayado. Pero para mi sorpresa, Hertzberg trae a colación el origen de la antipalabra Soccer y el desagrado de las naciones futboleras frente a ésta. Así pues, como regalo de despedida del Mundial y a los fines de alimentar tertulias en la gran barra del botiquín tercermundista, aquí se los dejo.
soccer /sok-er/
“(…)The one that the rest of the world calls “football,” except when it’s called (for example) futbal, futball, fútbol, futebol, fotball, fótbolti, fußball, or (as in Finland) jalkapallo, which translates literally as “football.” That one.”
““Soccer,” by the way, is not some Yankee neologism but a word of impeccably British origin. It owes its coinage to a domestic rival, rugby, whose proponents were fighting a losing battle over the football brand around the time that we were preoccupied with a more sanguinary civil war. Rugby’s nickname was (and is) rugger, and its players are called ruggers—a bit of upper-class twittery, as in “champers,” for champagne, or “preggers,” for enceinte. “Soccer” is rugger’s equivalent in Oxbridge-speak. The “soc” part is short for “assoc,” which is short for “association,” as in “association football,” (…)”
soccer /sok-er/
“(…)The one that the rest of the world calls “football,” except when it’s called (for example) futbal, futball, fútbol, futebol, fotball, fótbolti, fußball, or (as in Finland) jalkapallo, which translates literally as “football.” That one.”
““Soccer,” by the way, is not some Yankee neologism but a word of impeccably British origin. It owes its coinage to a domestic rival, rugby, whose proponents were fighting a losing battle over the football brand around the time that we were preoccupied with a more sanguinary civil war. Rugby’s nickname was (and is) rugger, and its players are called ruggers—a bit of upper-class twittery, as in “champers,” for champagne, or “preggers,” for enceinte. “Soccer” is rugger’s equivalent in Oxbridge-speak. The “soc” part is short for “assoc,” which is short for “association,” as in “association football,” (…)”
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