02.01.25; level 1; topic; school [15]; sports and exercise [3]; ball and racquet sports [1]

There can be some inconsistency in precise meanings and, something on which I’ve based a lot of the work, I don’t think that, just because one person tells you one thing on one site, it is enough to consider it valid. Therefore, as much as possible I have cross-referenced some of the terms for modern ball games.

follis, -is [3/m]: inflated ball

pila, -ae [1/f]: ball; ball game

Image #1: [1] harpastum, -ī [2/n]: handball i.e. the object

Apart from referring to the ball itself, harpastum was also the name of a ball game played in Ancient Rome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpastum

Research, although not conclusive, argues that harpastum was a game similar to rugby and, in New Latin, this is the term used:

Harpastō lūdō │ I play (at) rugby; https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpastum and https://neolatinlexicon.org/latin/football__rugby/

[2] pedilūdium, -ī [2/n] or pedifollium, -ī [2/n]: football (soccer) i.e. the game itself

Interestingly, Traupman in “Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency” which is a good source of New Latin, seems to differentiate between these two by adding a comment (p47): pedilūdium (mōre Americānō). I may cause a civil war but I can’t see any reason to differentiate between the two: https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pediludium lists the word as soccer, not American football and both words are also listed at: https://neolatinlexicon.org/latin/football__soccer/

• pedifollis, -is [3/m]: the football (the object)
• pedifolle lūdō │ I play football i.e. playing with the ball
• pedilūsor, pedilūsōris [3/m]: football player

[3] Image #2: There are two alternative terms for American football:

[i] pedilūdium Americānum which is a precise rendering of the idea

[ii] harpastum Americānum which, again, relates to the original Roman game where the ball was passed by hand; https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpastum 

Whichever words you go for, some posts have already been written on football:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlRFLDlrbdc

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/permalink/418653530745921/

https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/04/040424-talking-about-football-in-latin-2.html

https://youtu.be/GsBK6QmFzZg