Originally, the word "football" referred to any ball game between two teams.
Taken from the English compound of “foot”, “foot”, and “ball”, “balle, ballon”, the term appeared in France in the 17th century.
It goes without saying, however, that at that time, "football" did not yet designate the collective sport popularized in the 19th century and which today is the subject of world competitions.
No, it is then a "primitive" game played by the British, heir to the French soule.
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In the Middle Ages, the soule was a means of distraction and amusement for the inhabitants of the Picardy, Normandy regions, and more generally of the north-east of France.
According to the
Trésor de la langue française
, it was a rather violent game consisting of throwing a leather ball filled with bran or hay using the hand or foot.
In the 11th century, this activity would have crossed the English Channel with William the Conqueror.
“It is delightful
, writes Morris Marples in
The History of Football
(1st Edition),
that the quintessential English game has a French origin.”
"Dribble", "tackle", "hold-up", "play-off"... These English words, specific to football jargon and now known to everyone, have traveled together with the dissemination of football around the world.
But do you know that some of them have French origins, or at least equivalents?
A goal
Just as it is accepted by all that a "goalkeeper" designates a goalkeeper, a player whose role is to ensure the defense of a goal, the "goal" qualifies the football cage, the goal, which he protects.
Borrowed from the low Frankish "but" ("log, block") designating a piece that was used for archery, as explained by the French Academy, the term (often supplanted by the word "goal") thus qualifies the structure a player is aiming for in order to achieve their objective, i.e. to score a point.
Being of course preferable to use the French term “but” to designate this object, you do not have to blush to use the word “goal”.
Indeed, as indicated by the
Online Etymology Dictionary
, the latter comes from the old French "gaule", used in the 13th century to speak of a long pole, a stake.
Probably the one that served to mark the limits of the goal in question.
A penalty shot
If we frequently hear that
"the referee is forced to whistle a penalty"
during the televised broadcast of a football match, the "penalty" (shot on goal awarded to a team as part of a sanction taken against the opposing team, for a fault committed in its own penalty area) has been attested in the English language as a sporting term since 1885. At that time, French also adopted it.
Previously, the English “penalty” referred to a sanction incurred for an action contrary to a law, regulation or contract.
This word, as indicated by the wise men of the Academy, is borrowed from the French "penalty", ("quality of what is penal"). There is therefore no need to resort to the Anglicism "penalty", while the word "penalty", used to refer to "penalty shot", exists.
Read alsoTen words to talk about rugby like a (real) athlete
A skylight
Don't call it "corner" or "top corner" anymore as it is in its English form.
The "skylight" is what qualifies the upper angle, right or left, of the goals.
This is precisely the corner formed by the intersection between the post and the crossbar of the cage.
For the goalkeeper, as for the scorer (who can be said to have great precision if he succeeds), this is the most difficult place to reach when shooting.
Borrowed from the Frankish "lukinna", designating an opening made in the roof of a house, the word "skylight" was for a time abandoned in favor of its English equivalent.
It would seem that the so-called 'skylight of Evry' challenge, consisting of getting the ball into a small window, has given the term back its footballing meaning.
A pressure
“Defending well starts with the pressing, and the pressing starts in front”
, explained in 2021 Peter Bosz, then coach of Olympique Lyonnais.
What to say?
Could there be a connection between football and these commercial establishments where clothes are cleaned and then steam ironed?
Nay.
Pressing is a defensive phase which consists of preventing the opponent's progress from the player possessing the ball by cutting off his passing trajectories, by isolating him.
Term of football jargon born in the twentieth century, it comes from the English verb "to press" ("action to press"), itself from the French "to press".
Also, why not talk about “exerting pressure” rather than “pressing”?