The names of the game football (soccer) in different languages are usually direct or indirect borrowings from the English "football", but several different etymologies present themselves. This table is based on the list of interlanguage links from Football (soccer), as of 22 February 2006, reproduced below. (Note that I've left off languages written in Indian, Chinese, Thai, Hebrew, and Arabic scripts because even if I did know how to read them, my computer doesn't even have the fonts to display them.)
[[af:Sokker]] [[als:Fussball]] [[be:Футбол]] [[bg:Футбол]] [[bn:এসোসিয়েশন ফুটবল]] [[bs:Nogomet]] [[ca:Futbol]] [[cs:Fotbal]] [[cy:Pêl-droed]] [[da:Fodbold]] [[de:Fußball]] [[el:Ποδόσφαιρο]] [[eo:Futbalo]] [[es:Fútbol]] [[et:Jalgpall]] [[fa:فوتبال]] [[fi:Jalkapallo]] [[fr:Football]] [[fy:Fuotbal]] [[ga:Sacar]] [[gd:Ball-coise]] [[gl:Fútbol]] [[he:כדורגל]] [[hr:Nogomet]] [[hu:Labdarúgás]] [[ia:Football]] [[id:Sepak bola]] [[io:Futbolo]] [[is:Knattspyrna]] [[it:Calcio (sport)]] [[ja:サッカー]] [[ko:축구]] [[la:Pediludium]] [[lb:Foussball]] [[li:Vootbal]] [[lt:Futbolas]] [[lv:Futbols]] [[ml:ഫുട്ബോള്]] [[ms:Bola sepak]] [[nds:Football]] [[nl:Voetbal]] [[nn:Fotball]] [[no:Fotball]] [[pl:Piłka nożna]] [[pt:Futebol]] [[ro:Fotbal]] [[ru:Футбол]] [[sco:Fitbaa]] [[simple:Soccer football]] [[sl:Nogomet]] [[sq:Futbolli]] [[sr:Фудбал]] [[sv:Fotboll]] [[th:ฟุตบอล]] [[tr:Futbol]] [[vi:Bóng đá]] [[wa:Fotbale]] [[zh:足球]] [[zh-min-nan:Kha-kiû]]
Key edit
Language: Self-explanatory. Where a given language has more than one line, the first is the title of the Wikipedia article linked from Football (soccer) and the others are sourced.
Name in language: Roman letters in brackets are transliterations.
Etymology column:
LW = Loanword (more-or-less direct borrowing, usually allowing for phonological and spelling differences, of the word given in quotes)
LWS = Loanword ultimately based on English "soccer" LWF = Loanword ultimately based on English "football"
Sp = Kept English spelling
LT = loan translation or calque (word-for-word translation: e.g. Polish piłka nożna, where piłka means "ball" and nożna means "foot (adj.)")
LTC = loan translation in a Germanic language, where both parts of the compound word are cognate to English "foot" and "ball", e.g. German Fußball from Fuß and Ball
Table edit
| Language | Name in language | Etymology |
|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Sokker | LWS |
| Alemannic | Fussball | LTC |
| Belarusian | Футбол (futbol) | LWF |
| Bulgarian | Футбол (futbol) | LWF |
| Bosnian | Nogomet | poss. LT? "nogo-" = "foot" (Slavic root, cf. Russian "нога"), "met" = ? |
| (Wiktionary) | Fudbal | LWF |
| Catalan | Futbol | LWF |
| Chinese | 足球 (zúqiú) | LT (足=foot, 球=ball) |
| Czech | Fotbal | LWF |
| Welsh | Pêl-droed | LT, presumably |
| Danish | Fodbold | LTC |
| German | Fußball | LTC |
| Greek | Ποδόσφαιρο (podósfairo) | LT: Πόδι = "foot", σφαίρα = "ball, sphere" |
| Esperanto | Futbalo | LWS |
| Spanish | Fútbol | LWS |
| Estonian | Jalgpall | LT: jalg = "foot", pall = "ball" |
| Finnish | Jalkapallo | LT: jalka = "foot", pallo = "ball" |
| French | Football | LWF Sp |
| Frisian | Fuotbal | LTC |
| Irish | Sacar | LWS |
| (Wiktionary) | Peil | ??? |
| Scottish Gaelic | Ball-coise | ??? |
| Galician | Fútbol | LWF |
| Croatian | Nogomet | see Bosnian |
| Hungarian | Labdarúgás | ??? |
| Interlingua | Football | LWF |
| Indonesian | Sepak bola | LT? (Is "bola" a loanword?) |
| Ido | Futbolo | LWF |
| Icelandic | Knattspyrna | ??? |
| Italian | Calcio | "kick"; see Calcio Fiorentino |
| Japanese | サッカー (sakkā) | LWS |
| Korean | 축구/蹴球 (chukku) | LW from Chinese? |
| Latin | Pediludium | LT: pedi- "foot", ludium "ball" |
| Luxembourgish | Foussball | LTC |
| Limburgish | Vootbal | LTC |
| Lithuanian | Futbolas | LWF |
| Latvian | Futbols | LWF |
| Malay | Bola sepak | see Indonesian |
| Low Saxon | Football | LWF Sp |
| Dutch | Voetbal | LTC |
| Norwegian Nynorsk and Bokmål | Fotball | LTC |
| Polish | Piłka nożna | LT: piłka "ball", nożna "foot" (adj.) |
| Portuguese | Futebol | LWF |
| Romanian | Fotbal | LWF |
| Russian | Футбол (futbol) | LWF |
| Scots | Fitbaa | LTC |
| Slovenian | Nogomet | see Bosnian |
| Albanian | Futbolli | LWF |
| Serbian | фудбал (fudbal) | LWF |
| Swedish | Fotboll | LTC |
| Turkish | Futbol | LWF |
| Vietnamese | Bóng đá | bóng = ball, đá = kick |
| Walloon | Fotbale | LWF |