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The Oxford "-er", or often "-ers", is a colloquial and sometimes facetious suffix prevalent at Oxford University from about 1875, which is thought to have been borrowed from the slang of Rugby School. The term was defined by the lexicographer Eric Partridge in his ''Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English'' (several editions 1937–61). == Rugger, footer and soccer == The "-er" gave rise to such words as ''rugger'' for Rugby football, ''soccer'' (or the rarer ''togger'') and the now archaic ''footer'' was used for either game (but more usually soccer). The term "soccer", derived from a transformation/emendation of the "assoc" in Association football, was popularised by a prominent English footballer, Charles Wreford-Brown (1866–1951).〔 Ekblom mentions that while he was up at Oxford, Charles Wreford-Brown was asked at breakfast if he was playing rugger "No" he replied "I'm playing soccer" (Granville, 1969, p. 29). But Ekblom opinions that like the William Webb Ellis rugby story it is most likely apocryphal.〕 The first recorded use of "soccer" was in 1895〔''19th Cent''. Nov. 862. "When the boat~race, sports, and ‘soccer’ are in most men's minds." OED (soccer)〕 (or even earlier in 1892). Two years earlier ''The Western Gazette'' reported that "W. Neilson was elected captain of ‘rugger’ and T. N. Perkins of ‘socker’"〔1893 Westm. Gaz. 17 Oct. 5/3. OED (rugby).〕 and Henry Watson Fowler recommended ''socker'' in preference to "soccer" to emphasise its correct pronunciation (''i.e.'' hard "cc/ck").〔''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'', 1926. See also Susie Dent on ''Countdown'', Channel 4 TV, 30 June 2009.〕 In this context, he suggested that "baccy", because of the "cc" in "tobacco", was "more acceptable than soccer" (there being no "cc" in "Association"). "Socker" was the form that appeared in the first edition of the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' (1911).〔''The Times'', 18 August 2011〕 The sports writer E. W. Swanton, who joined the London ''Evening Standard'' in 1927, recalled that "Rugby football ... in those days, I think, was never called anything but rugger unless it were just football".〔E. W. Swanton (1972) ''Sort of a Cricket Person''〕 Around the same time the Conservative Minister Leo Amery noted that, for his thirteen-year-old son Jack, "footer in the rain () a very real grievance" at Harrow School.〔See David Faber (2005) ''Speaking for England''〕 ===In literature=== In Evelyn Waugh's ''Brideshead Revisited'' (1945), Oxford undergraduate Anthony Blanche claims that "I was lunching with my p-p-preposterous tutor. He thought it very odd my leaving when I did. I told him I had to change for f-f-footer." In ''Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves'' (1963), a novel of P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), Bertie Wooster was asked whether he was fond of rugger, to which he replied "I don't think I know him". As late as 1972 the retired headmaster of a Hertfordshire grammar school recalled "the footer" (by which he meant rugby) having had a poor season in 1953–4.〔Ernest H. Jenkins, ''Elizabethan Headmaster 1930–1961''〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oxford "-er"」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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