Feet Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. 'Spring' being an example, and seen in expressions such as 'spring fever', 'spring upon', 'spring chicken', 'spring cleaning', etc. This etymologist thought about looking at some of these and see what usage, origin, and beginnings can reveal. This time we start with 'foot'.

On foot is the earliest, at around 1300.

Hot foot is first seen in English around the same period of the early 14th century, but received a boost as American slang in 1896 to mean 'hastily', and saw a third revival around 1934 as a prank involving matches.

Put one's foot in it dates from 1823.

One foot in the grave is first seen in 1844.

We put our best foot forward for the first time in 1849, although Shakespeare did speak of 'the better foot before' in 1596.

Cold feet, for it is only used in the plural, first appears in 1893 and some sources suggest this is a bad rendition of an Italian phrase, avegh minga frecc i pee meaning 'to have no money', although this seems somewhat contrived.

Got off on the wrong foot is first seen in print in 1905, two years earlier than anyone ever got off on the right foot.

My foot, an expression of contempt, is first seen in 1923.

Put one's foot in one's mouth is not seen in writing until 1942.

One no longer used is 'foot' meaning 'a person' and thus 'non-foot' meant 'nobody'.