this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
107 points (90.2% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35931 readers
730 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

If I'm talking to an English speaker from outside of the US, is there any confusion if I say "soccer"?

For example, when I was in college a friend asked for a "torch". I was confused for quite some time, because I didn't know it was another word for "flashlight". Does the same thing happen with the word "soccer"? Should I clarify by saying, "...or football"?

Thank you!

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 113 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Not a native English speaker, but my hunch is, soccer will almost certainly be understood. Also it will identify you as American.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (17 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (4 children)

And Australia, at least when they're not trying to suck up to the British.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And English... I've heard them use soccer as well on many occasions

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Yeah, soccer is actually an English term that they created to refer to association football, as opposed to rugby football or the hundreds of other forms of football.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

If an Englishman uses 'soccer' he's almost certainly from the upper class.

As “soccer” was played by the elite (such as the Oxford lad who is said to have coined “soccer”), it soon spread to the working classes, and became “football”.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 83 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (10 children)

English people understand the limitations Americans have to live under when it comes to language

Edit: jesus you make little high brow joke and all the idiots gets butthurt.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

We had to call it soccer. We already had a sport called competitive diving.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

When I get asked if I watch soccer as a hockey fan I have the same feelings. The Women's version of soccer is much tougher and I would rather watch that. They take a beating and get bloodied but keep playing unlike the men falling over including the coaches from being brushed by a piece of paper.

This video does a good job capturing the differences between coaches: https://youtu.be/9HxzLEqI-qE?si=VPWHKI081v80eA3k

This one does a great job highlighting the competition diving angle. I think ~~artist~~ *artistic diving might be more applicable though: https://youtu.be/_OXdfJgCmLc?si=7n-tIrOIsxznm49W

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Isn't American football just rugby with padding /jk

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You do realize the word Soccer for the actual game originated in England right?

It just so happened that “Rugby football” got shortened to Rugby and this “Associa toon (Socker) football” got shortened to Football.

Since since an American sport came around the same time called “Football” they kept the name “Soccer” for Association Football.

Just letting you know a little back story.

A small article about it can be found here. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer And there are plenty more info out there about it.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I’m going to call them soccer football and American football from now on

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

I'm going to be an insufferable pedant and reply, "Do you mean association football or rugby football?" whenever anyone uses either :P

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I refer to Soccer the football played with your foot and then the American version as " Egg-ball" played with your hands.

That said I'm also Canadian and for many years in our small "hand egg-ball" league we had 2 teams with very similar club names called the Rough Riders and the Roughriders so I shouldn't be throwing so many stones...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

For a while, the governing body in the US was the United State Soccer Football Association, so you're good, and it's also some good trolling of the zealots on either side of the "debate."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)

It would require more research than I'm willing to do, but the only part of that article that set off my sports-history-nerd Spidey Sense was this:

In full, it was known as gridiron football, but most people never bothered with the first word.

I don't know that anyone actually involved in playing or codifying the game ever used "gridiron football" in anything like the same official way that Association football or Rugby football were used. It feels much more like outside observers trying to impose logical categories from afar, British exceptionalism at its finest. AFAIK, gridiron was always used as a nickname for the field, and the sport itself was only ever widely referred to as "football," American exceptionalism at its finest.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Do English people know that they originated “soccer” as Oxford slang for “association football?” Nothing hits like the English ignorantly shitting on their colonies for adopting the stupid English practices forced upon them by the English at the time.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (4 children)

English shitting on our colonies is our favourite past time. You should come along sometime.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

America isn’t a British colony, we won a whole war about that.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Isn't now, but it was a colony, and that's more than enough for us to shit on it

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

"English (simplified)"

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (3 children)

No, we understand. In fact, if anything it's easier if you say soccer! If someone with an American accent says 'football' I normally assume they mean gridiron, so sayings soccer is actually a little clearer.

Of course, in different parts of the world, 'football' might mean rugby (either union or league), Gaelic football or Aussie rules football. So, the potential for confusion is pretty wide!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This. 'Soccer' is well understood and unambiguous, though it might prompt certain assumptions depending on your audience. There are times and places you might prefer to say 'football' to mean 'Association football,' but if you just need to communicate simple factual information in two syllables, it's probably the best word for that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

There are times and places you might prefer to say ‘football’

Even countries or continents.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

In Australia we have Soccer, Aussie rules football (AFL), Rugby Union (Union) and Rugby league (Usually referred to as "League" or "NRL") all of them also known as "Football"

I have a pretty deep burning hatred for people who insist on correcting people when they say Soccer. It honestly just makes you look like a twat "yOu mEaN wHaT tHe rEsT oF thE WoRld CalLs foOTbALl!?!" Like you fucking understood well enough to know this was your moment to open your cockholster and needlessly add that little tidbit like anyone else was confused.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's ok, we know you guys are weird.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The word Soccer is actually British - it's short for Association as in Association Football, although it's slang from Oxford University of all places, and is late Victorian.

Irony is a surprising number of "Americanisms" turn out to be old British terms that died out in Britain but reached and continued in the US.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Most won't be confused at all. They might be surprised but pretty simple logic would result in a fast realisation of what you actually mean. I am surprised though, that you, as an English speaking person couldn't figure out that a torch might refer to a flash light.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Torch has another common meaning though. Does soccer?

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Because we have actual torches too. You guys don't have actual soccers to get confused by. Given the right context we can figure out when you mean flashlight, but said torch.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Haha it's true! When my Malaysian friend asked me for a torch, I was running around for five minutes looking for a lighter, like this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aKrxd1q3Mw&t=8

It's all I could picture, no one ever asked me for a TORCH before. Like in Indiana Jones?? 😅

Until I stopped and asked, "Wait, what do you need it for?"

"To look at my car, something is wrong with the engine."

...and that's when I realized. We had a good laugh.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

I'm an American who lived in England for a couple of years. Due to American media the majority of everyone understood what I meant when I said things like soccer, trunk or hood of a car, fries, etc. Words with different meanings between the two could get confusing like biscuit, chips, or pissed.

Since soccer doesn't have another meaning I never ran into someone who didn't know what I was talking about. However, when saying football in an American accent some thought I was referring to American Football by default.

I can only remember one instant where someone did not know what I was talking about. That was when I asked someone at work where the dumpster was and I got a blank stare. I explained, the big metal thing outside for trash and they were like, "oh the skip"

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

From now on I’m calling it Foot Football. That other game is Hand Football.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

While it will absolutely out you as a US American, we will understand - same as when you say "Candy" and similar common Americanisms

Edit: Also, while mostly used to refer to flashlights as you guys call them, torch can also refer to other non-lantern light-emitting instruments

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (7 children)

... wtf else do you call candy?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (8 children)

As others have said, sweets

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wee Confectionary Yum Yums

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Confectionery...sweets

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] BigDanishGuy 10 points 11 months ago

Everyone understands, most gringe.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

As a non-native English speaker I fully understand what it means and will happily correct it to football for you :P

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It is just football all over the world, in contrast to American "football".

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Ah yes no worries, we even heard about them Soccer moms here in Europe.

load more comments
view more: next ›