The Missimo family has roots in Italy. We asked UT Italian Studies professor Dr. Cinzia Russi about what they call that country’s most popular sport in the native language.

“‘Calcio,’ which means literally ‘kick,’” she replied.

Dr. Russi explained how nouns tend to be classified as feminine or masculine in their language.

“‘Calcio’ is masculine. Typically nouns that end in ‘o’ are masculine, and nouns ending in ‘a’ are feminine. Though there are some exceptions. But in ‘calcio,’ it’s masculine.”

While she went on to note that the masculine/femine noun groupings are mostly just “grammatical markers.” However, RHG does explore how under the radar women’s soccer was in most of Europe until very recently, even as the men’s game enjoyed unparalleled popularity. So somehow learning that the word for soccer is a masculine noun does seem like a reason for women’s soccer advocates to shake their heads and sigh.