Ukrainian football vocabulary in Ukraine, like football itself, dates back to ХІХ-ХХ centuries. The leading trend of the formation of special football names was search of the native Ukrainian words in opposition to adopted foreign football terms, which, like the game itself, were borrowed by the Ukrainians from the English. The aim of this investigation is highlighting of the most important thematic groups of football vocabulary, which was in use at the end of ХІХ – the first half of ХХ centuries, and also it is important to trace correlation of national and foreign components in football terminology in the initial period of its formation. The basic source of the research were special Ukrainian editions dedicated to football and texts on football themes on the basis of Ukrainian sports periodicals in the first half of ХХ century.
As a result of the analysis of this fact material, a thematic classification of special football names was carried out. 13 main thematic groups of football vocabulary were distinguished: names of the football game, names of football clubs and associations of football teams, names of football players according to their positions on the field and functional duties in the game, names of actions of the football players on the field, names of game moments, names of ball shots, names of football tournaments, football game and its parts, names of football field, its parts and layout, names of football equipment and facilities, names of judges and other people involved in football match, names of fans and fans’ support, names of final results of matches and won points, names of varieties of football training process. The richest according to their quantity and variety are groups with names of football actions (aktsiia, atak, interventsiia, odenzyva, napad, nastup; defenzyva, zadnia formatsiia, zakhyst, oborona; dribling, droblennia myacha, kyvanie, kyvannia, pereprovadguvannia mycha vuzhem; zahrannia, zihrannia, kombinatsiia; kopnenie, pas, passing, pereprovadguvannia myacha, podavanie, podavannia, podannia; zaderzhuvanie, zaderzhannia, zupyn, stopping; vypad, zryv; drulenie, druliannia; kryttia, murovanie vorit, murovannia; robinzonada; “kiksa”) and names of football players (futbolist, hrach, kopun, myachevyk; bramkar, vorotar, storozh bramky; bek, zakhysnyk, oboronets, pozadnii, storozh hranytsi; zalozhnyk, napivzakhysnyk, pomichnyk, rezervist; hartsovnyk, luchnyk, napadach, napasnyk, peredovyi, strilets, cherhovyi, chilnyk). Despite the fact that Ukrainian system of football terminology during the investigated period was in the process of formation, there was certain domination of national football terminology over foreign terms: 75 per cent football names themselves, 23 per cent – loanwords from different languages and 2 per cent hybrid special names. In further investigations football terminology of ХІХ – ХХ centuries, its development and dynamics of use of national names and foreign loanwords in it should be analyzed.