Abstract:

This article focuses on football/soccer as an object of scientific study, examining the etymology of unofficial nicknames of football/soccer teams from different countries and their translation into Spanish. The authors systemize these unofficial names and suggest their own classification, looking into the issue of terminology. This research is based on Spanish language media, football/soccer blogs and forums, video footages of football games. The main findings of the issue imply that the etymology of these informal names of teams derives from the semantic field that surrounds the cultural object (the team being such an object). The semantic field in its turn is determined by the historical and political context, as well as geographical and even economic realities, such as the type of activity of the country's population. From the perspective of intercultural communication the material of this issue can be used as linguo-cultural material and help students make their communication with representatives of other nations richer and more diverse. Colorisms, symbolisms, professionalisms, names of plants, ethnicons, historicisms and more than ten other groups are mentioned in the issue. The information given in this paper could be useful in the field of business, more precisely, for creating a heartily atmosphere for dialogue with representatives of the Spanish speakers, for whom football is one of the main components of being, moreover, regardless of the gender of the native speaker: football is equally appreciated by both women and men. The material in the paper can also be used by learners of Spanish, as well as users of other languages as an optional material.

Keywords:

Nickname, etymology, semantic field, cultural object, unofficial name, cultural linguistics, linguistics, practice of translations.