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!

  • irish_link@lemmy.world
    6015·
    10 months ago

    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.

      • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        121·
        10 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

      • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
        94·
        10 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…