Well, English did invent the language as a whole... But in any case... I use "football" because thats how I was taught when I was learning English. And it seems that everyone who learns English as a foreign language is taught the same. Which explains why we (combined with the Brits) get pissed when you call our holy ceremony a nerdy name like soccer.

As for the pitch vs. field and elevator vs. lift... I dont know. Frankly, I thought that in both cases, both words apply in American English, and English English.

		guidogodoy wrote:
		I never said the English didn't. Only that they invented the term. There is an accent in Spanish, too: fútbol. There are also other countries that still refer to the sport as "soccer." I only named two. How is it that no one gets mad about calling it a "field" vs. "pitch?" Why no major issues between "elevator" and "lift" for that matter?      _strat_ wrote: Tell it to this guy: And just for the record... I am ignorant of the history of the term, but I do know that Brits (as well as Irish) call it football now. And the word echoes in German "Fußball", Serbian "Fudbal" and Spanish "Futbol", which all refer to the same sport, the one that Americans and Canadians call... ugh... "Soccer"...      guidogodoy wrote: There you have it....documented! www.cs.utexas.edu/~pstone/why.html