Monday, June 16, 2014

Brazillian (for Brazilian)


With the World Cup now fully underway, legions of Brazilian soccer fans are hoping their team can use its home field advantage to pull off a win.  And they can participate in this national pastime secure in the knowledge that their country has a long association with the sport.  However, soccer is far less mainstream here in the United States, leading New York Times reporter Sarah Lyall to question whether American devotees of the sport are confronted with an identity crisis of sorts.  For instance, is it showing respect or merely being pretentious when an American uses terms such as “football” or “pitch” rather than “soccer” or “field?” And what are American fans to wear to a match–er, game?  Adopt customary garb, or dress as their European counterparts might?  Even that ubiquitous American tradition, the tailgate party, could be fraught–as Lyall points out, in England, tailgating would be banned by the police out of fear for inciting riots.

Brazillian appears in the moderate-probability section of the Ballard list.  There are currently 26 occurrences of it in the OhioLINK database and 628 in WorldCat (not all errors), and you will find even more if you use a wildcard character.  Whether or not you not you support the Brazilians’ aspirations for world soccer domination, surely they deserve correct spelling in our catalogs!

(Adidas Brazuca, the official ball of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, from Wikimedia Commons)
Deb Kulczak

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