Korjaukset

Let’s take English for example.

In the USA, the word “football” is used to indicate “American football” while in Canada it indicates “Canadian football”, two versions of a sport that is generally called “gridiron football”.

In both countries, “association football” is usually called “soccer”.

In Australia, the word “football” indicates “Australian rules football”, still another code, and in New Zealand it can often indicate “rugby football”.

So many meanings for just one word, amazing, isn’t it?

What about the other languages?

The majority of European languages tend to call “association football” with names derived from “football”: in French it is “football”, in German it is Fußball, in Spanish it is fútbol etc. One important exception is Italian: in Italy, the word “football” was originally used, but it was later replaced with the Italian “calcio”, a term derived from a traditional sport which was quite similar to modern football and was very popular in Florence.

For this reason, it was called “calcio fiorentino”, that is: Florence football.

Florence is the city where Italian language and culture had origin, so it was normal for Italian people that Florence should have chosen the name for the new sport.

What do you think?