Apparently, "foot ball" originally described a whole class of different "peasant" games that were played with balls on foot, as distinguished from games played by aristocrats on horseback. It had nothing to do with any contact the foot and the ball might have had during the game.
One of the quotes from the 1800s describes a game in which kicking the ball is against the rules and calls it "football."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-06-15 03:03 pm (UTC)Apparently, "foot ball" originally described a whole class of different "peasant" games that were played with balls on foot, as distinguished from games played by aristocrats on horseback. It had nothing to do with any contact the foot and the ball might have had during the game.
One of the quotes from the 1800s describes a game in which kicking the ball is against the rules and calls it "football."