A solid body approaching the figure of a sphere, though not exactly round, having one of its diameters longer than the other. This solid is usually considered as generated by the rotation of an oval plane figure about one of its axes. If that be the longer or transverse axis, the solid so generated is called an oblong Spheroid, sometimes prolate, which resembles an egg [or a football]

— C Hutton Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary 1795