Soccer is just an abbreviation of "Association" Football, here is why people hate the term Soccer

Here is a wonderful comment by /u/AndrcApp that explains perfectly why people hate the term "soccer".

The historic hatred of the word soccer by many British people has almost nothing to do with Americans using the term, it due to the origins and the use of the word, the 'class' of those that tried to impose the word, and the attitude of those that used soccer towards the game.

The UK is a country which up until the the late 1970's was dominated by it's class system. This class system should not be confused with an Indian style 'caste system' because there was social movement through the classes. The British 'class system' was a culture of people deliberately separating themselves due to a perceived status based on type of work and level of wealth. Back then someone who was 'middle class' would avoid social interaction with someone who was 'working class', or be seen to like the same things as a 'working class' person.

Association Football is a game created by England's urban 'working class' during the late 19th Century, which over time became popular with the rest of the UK's 'working class'. It also became popular with small amounts of the 'middle class' and 'upper class'. It was during that early period that the word soccer first appeared, but used by the 'upper class'. The absolute etymology of soccer is disputed. 10 years ago the BBC ran a series called "Balderdash & Piffle" where they worked with the Oxford English Dictionary to explain the history of English words. This authoritative programme advised that the likely source of the word soccer came from 'upper class' going to 'Fee Paying Schools' & elite Universities. During the late 19th Century these rich 'upper class' youths had a fashion for shortening their favourite pastimes and ending them with -er. So Rugby Football=Rugger, Association Football=Soccer, and Buggery=Bugger.

Over time Soccer became the term that the Upper Class used for Association Football while the working class called it Football. The class system dominated British culture up to the late 1970's. This domination included our TV & Radio. Everyone, including 'working class' people, were expected to use 'Queens English' when on TV & Radio. The fake 'Queens English' you hear from working class people being filmed back then is ridiculous. One impact of this is that TV, Radio, and books commonly referred to 'football' as soccer, because that's what the 'Upper Class' demanded.

So yes, books and TV would have referred to the game as soccer up to recently, but that was because the 'upper class' that controlled the media demanded the use the term. As result of this the typical 'working class' British football supporter hated the term soccer which was being forced upon them by the 'upper class'. My father was a union man and shop steward, and he would go into a red faced rage when he heard footballers using the term on TV. He considered them class traitors.

I think people in the UK under the age of 30 find it hard to believe that the class system was so absolute in the UK, but I can tell you it was.

Best personal example I can give is when I went to University in 1990. Most of the people at my University were from state funded schools and of 'working class' or 'middle class' backgrounds and called the game Football. The small number from 'fee paying schools' (upper class backgrounds) called the game soccer and always said the word with a sneer as if it was peasants game. One of my friends had gone to a 'fee paying school' and told me that football was banned at the school, and in fact up to approx 1985 you were punished if you were caught playing 'soccer'. The punishment was caning! (being beaten with a stick) So at least up until the early 1980's some schools for upper class children that called the game 'soccer' banned the game and if you were caught playing you were punished with a beating.

That's why so many Brits, me included, hate the term soccer.