h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was sadly disapointed when i opened up this article and found that is was not about football, but in fact about soccer. The title is misleading.

I hope no-one will rise to that one!

The fact that the graphic on the front page clearly illustrates a spherical and archetypally-coloured (ie black and white) footba... sorry, soccer ball didn't give you a hint?

Would that be American football, Gaelic football, Australian rules football or rugby football that you were expecting? Soccer of course is Association football ...

BBS

PS Do they have terrace chants and songs at your type of football? If so tell us a bit about them (please).

Soccer? I thought we weren't allowed to swear on h2g2 any more ... please, nobody use that damned awful word again!

At least one person understood the statment. Soccer is but one of the many forms of football. Also, cheers and songs are common for all sports, at least in the town I am from.

But not many forms of Football have terraces ... don't the Americans insist on sitting down for their version of the game because it takes about thirty seven and a half hours to play one match ...

.. excluding the adverts of course.

Anyway football is football is football. What sense is there in calling a game football if you're, in fact holding, carrying or throwing the damn thing around for ninety percent of the time?

THAT'S CHEATING! Stop it or you're off.

jimbobthefinder. FOOTBALL SUPPORTER

appearently you missed it the second time. I was pointing out the fact that "football" is not always "football" their are other forms of the game that are known as football that are not just football( as in soccer). By the way, how is soccer swearing?

Why is it that "football" fans get so wound up about it being called soccer? I suspect it results from a misconception that it is an American invented term e.g. North American Soccer League, but in fact has been around since the game was first codified.

Just as rubgy is sometimes known as rugger (especially in public schools), asSOCiation football became known as soccer. Hence the term.

Today fact for the day

BBS

Yes, yes, yes. We know all that. It's just that soccer is such a weasel word. Football is so much more ... descriptive.

It's much better and clearer to define something in terms of what you actually do rather than in terms of who governs the thing. Especially now that the people who govern the thing wouldn't know what a football was if it landed in their and made them choke on their canapes.

jimbobthefinder

In the same vein 'American Football' should be known as - Bighairyblokeswithlotsofpaddingandhelmetsrunaroundtryingtokilleachotherwhilstchasinganoddshapedball

I was a little unsure of what was ment by "terrace" I assumed that it ment some thing similer to bleacher or stands. I thought that it was one of the words that differ from America and Britain, such as car bonnet and car hood, Elevator and lift.

Main Entry: 1ter·race
Pronunciation: 'ter-&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, pile of earth, platform, terrace, from Old Provençal terrassa, from terra earth, from Latin, earth, land; akin to Latin torrEre to parch -- more at THIRST
Date: 1515
1 a : a colonnaded porch or promenade b : a flat roof or open platform c : a relatively level paved or planted area adjoining a building
2 a : a raised embankment with the top leveled b : one of usually a series of horizontal ridges made in a hillside to increase cultivatable land, conserve moisture, or minimize erosion
3 : a level ordinarily narrow plain usually with steep front bordering a river, lake, or sea; also : a similar undersea feature
4 a : a row of houses or apartments on raised ground or a sloping site b : a group of row houses c : a strip of park in the middle of a street often planted with trees or shrubs d : STREET


so you can see why i mistook the meaning.

one more line and queue

Elizabeth Wurtzel thinks that both sports are called football so that females both sides of the Atlantic have a universal name for a sport they hate. (Those females who hate football anyway.)

Given the statement "It's much better and clearer to define something in terms of what you actually do", please could you come up with some suggestions for rugby, tennis, badminton, squash, croquet, polo, fencing, baseball, cricket and golf ...

So they would become :

thughitsthugwithoddshapeball, raquetovernetball, hitfeatheredthingy, tortureinacubiclewithball, throughhoopball, withahorseball, swords, batballwithfoodbreaks, bigstickintoholeball

oops! forgot baseball - that would be batball and cricket is batballwithfoodbreaks

Now we're cooking.

Cricket could be complicatedbatballwithfoodbreaks.

And, please, rugby should be; gentlemanhitsothergentlemanwithoddshapedballballthendrinks.

Now we're cooking.

Cricket could be complicatedbatballwithfoodbreaks.

And, please, rugby should be; gentlemanhitsothergentlemanwithoddshapedballballthendrinks.