I was just wondering since Sport seems to be an international name for games, where did that word come from an who used it first?
200742
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word sport was first used to describe athletic endeavors in 1863.  Prior to that the word was used as early as 1440 to describe more general pasttimes and activities.\n\nThe word itself is a form of another word, disport, which ties back to the French word deporter, which means to divert, to amuse.\n\nIt's usage around the world probably stems from a couple of reasons: 1) that a similar word developed in local languages that have the same basis as English but, more likely, 2) that they are simply adopting the English word for this activity
495081
la‧crosse  /ləˈkrɔs, -ˈkrɒs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[luh-kraws, -kros] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation \n\n–noun a game, originated by Indians of North America, in which two 10-member teams attempt to send a small ball into each other's netted goal, each player being equipped with a crosse or stick at the end of which is a netted pocket for catching, carrying, or throwing the ball.  \n\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n[Origin: 1710–20, American; < CanF: lit., the crook (stick used in the game). See crosse] \nDictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)\nBased on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
107654
History and development\n\n\nThe Laws of the Game are based on efforts made in the mid-19th century to standardise the rules of the widely varying games of football played at the independent schools of England. The first set of rules resembling the modern game were produced at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1848, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury, but they were far from universally adopted. During the 1850s, many clubs were formed, throughout the English-speaking world, independent of schools or universities, to play various forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably the Sheffield Football Club (formed by former pupils from Harrow) in 1857, which led to formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. In 1862, J.C. Thring of Uppingham School also devised an influential set of rules.\n\nThese efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association (The FA) in 1863 which first met on the morning of 26 October 1863 at the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, London[1]. The only school to be represented on this occasion was Charterhouse. The Freemason's Tavern was the setting for five more meetings between October and December, which eventually produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer, who was the representative from Blackheath, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting, the first which allowed for the running with the ball in hand and the second, obstructing such a run by hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins), tripping and holding. Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA but instead in 1871 formed the Rugby Football Union. The eleven remaining clubs, under the charge of Ebenezer Cobb Morley, went on to ratify the original fourteen rules of the game. Despite this, the Sheffield FA played by its own rules until the 1870s.\n\nToday the laws of the game are determined by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). The Board was formed in 1886[2] after a meeting in Manchester of The Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales, and the Irish Football Association.\n\nThe world's first football league was founded in England in 1888 by Aston Villa director, William McGregor. The original format contained 12 clubs from the Midlands and the North of England.\n\nThe Fédération Internationale de Football Association FIFA, the international football body, was formed in Paris in 1904 and declared that they would adhere to the rules laid down by the IFAB. The growing popularity of the international game led to the admittance of FIFA representatives to the IFAB in 1913. Today the board is made up of four representatives from FIFA and one representative from each of the four British associations.\nFootball is popular among children as well as adults.
408852
Its the american and Australian saying for it. I mean here in England it has always been soccer, but americans call American Football there football so i guess its not a big deal. It will always be football to me and we gave it the name first so its not that bad.
629573
The very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. in China. A military manual dating from the period of the Han Dynasty includes among the physical education exercises, the "Tsu'Chu". This consisted of kicking a leather ball filled with feathers and hair through an opening, measuring only 30 - 40 cm in width, into a small net fixed onto long bamboo canes - a feat which obviously demanded great skill and excellent technique. A variation of this exercise also existed, whereby the player was not permitted to aim at his target unimpeded, but had to use his feet, chest, back and shoulders whilst trying to withstand the attacks of his opponents. Use of the hands was not permitted. The ball artistry of today's top players is therefore not quite as new as some people may assume.\n\nThe contemporary history of football spans more than 100 years. It all began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses and the world's first football association was founded - The Football Association in England. Both forms of football stemmed from a common root and both have a long and intricately branched ancestral tree. Their early history reveals at least half a dozen different games, varying to different degrees and to which the historical development of football is related and has actually been traced back. Whether this can be justified in some instances is disputable. Nevertheless, the fact remains that playing a ball with the feet has been going on for thousands of years and there is absolutely no reason to believe that it is an aberration of the more "natural" form of playing a ball with the hands.\n\nMore on the history off the game, check:\nhttp://www.fifa.com/en/history/history/0,1283,1,00.html
650560
it means how many international games a player has played\n\nActually cap is an abbreviation for Country APpearance..\ncaps is Country APpearanceS..\nbut there are arguments about the origin of the word caps..\n\nI've been told that the term "cap" refers to an old tradition of exchanging hats/caps between players of opposing nations at a friendly match. Thus, the number of "caps" a person accumulated was equal to the number of international matches a person had played in.
1570
It's a contraction of 'Association Football.' The term originated in England in 1863, because there were already other forms of football at the time. Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa also call it 'soccer' or 'association football.' Italy calls it 'calcio.'
381369
AWWYYY  SAAAYY THERE.\n\nThe real world is it now?\n\nSuch an unusual question!\n\nWe KRAZZEE yanks had to think of a name for a totally now game that WE invented over here in the UNREEAL world, so we thought about it for a very long time. At least five seconds and chose FOOTBALL  because the game starts by putting the ball in motion with a kick from the FOOT! \n\nThere now,  I hope that bloody well clears up that matter. \n\nCheerio old chap....
1792
It is football.\nAmericans and Australians call their own "football" (the one played with the Stewie Griffin head looking ball) football, so they had to find another name for football.  \nI call American/Australian insistence on soccer cultural imperialism.
61003
The game was probably invented in late medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February, 1541. Two paintings (both dated 1565 [1]) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder depict Dutch peasants curling (Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf).\n\nThe word curling first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson.
137150
Futbol - Soccer is a team game whose roots go back to ancient times. Forms of the game were played in such places and times as ancient Rome (harpastum), ancient Greece (harpaston), medieval Italy (calcio) and among the Mayans and Inuit eskimos to mention a few.\n\nThe most modern version of the game originated in England in the 12th century. So popular did the game become that English monarchs including Edward II and Henry IV forbade it among their subjects. They held the belief that the game took interest away from the military sport of archery. In spite of that, the game's popularity continued to grow. Read more at the site listed in sources.
130227
Soccer is what the Americans call Football in order to differentiate it from "American Football" which is a completely different game.\n\nFootball is a British invented sport with a huge worldwide following now where two teams of eleven players try to kicj a round ball into the other teams net.\n\nAmerican Football has more in common with Rugby Football where two teams of players run with, carry and throw an egg shaped ball to each other and attempt to touch it down behind the goal or kick it over the goal.\n\nRugby football was invented at Rugby School in England when someone picked up the ball during a normal game of football and ran with it.\n\nThe origins of football are thought to have been in the middle ages when baying crowds would compete to kick the severed head of someone who had been executed around the streets.\n\nNot much has changed in europe!!
587243
It's German. Literal it's SPORT FREE but maybe it means WITHOUT SPORT ?
1156
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it comes from Assoc., which is short for Association, because soccer is the game of football, as played under Association rules. Rugby football likewise became Rugger, though this is rarely used today.
80370
Badminton's roots date back centuries, having originated from a children's game known in England as "battledore and shuttlecock".\n\nIn 1873 the sport gained its current title after guests at a Badminton House lawn party held by the Duke of Beaufort introduced it to their friends as "the Badminton game".
271714
first, for all the idiots who think "soccer" is solely American perhaps i should point out that Canada and Australia also use "soccer" rather than football. so before you go accusing Americans of being narrow-minded look in the mirror. football was the common term in America at the inception of our federation but due to the popularity of American football it was deemed wise to use an alternative term and because it makes absolutely no sense to have 2 "footballs" competing with one another (same goes for Canada and Australia).
653548
Not one country.\nGames revolving around the kicking of a ball have been played in many countries through history. The earliest documented version is the Mesoamerica ballgame, played by the Olmec as early as 1500 BCE. The Chinese game Cuju is mentioned in military manuals from the time of the Qin Dynasty (255–206 BCE).[3] Other ancient ball games include kemari in Japan and the Roman game Harpastum. Various forms of mob football were played in mediæval Europe, though rules varied greatly by both period and location.\nThe modern game developed in England following the formation of the Football Association, whose 1863 set of rules created the foundations for the way the sport is played today.