barefoot

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English barfot,^[2][3] inherited from Old English bærfōt,^[4][5][6][7] a compound of bær (“bare”) and fōt (“foot”), the ancestors of bare and foot.^[6][5][3] Other Germanic languages have the same compound: Middle High German barvuoz, Old Frisian berfōt, Old Norse berfœttr and German barfuß.^[6][4] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *bazafōts.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

With bare feet, without shoes or stockings: Old English bærfōt glosses Latin nudipes, and in the laws a layman doing penance is to wander far barefoot.^[7][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1000,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to before the 12th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, used with verbs of motion such as go and walk, passed into an adverb; the OED's first adverbial example is in the Ancrene Riwle, about 1225.^[4][8] Chaucer used the word four times.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "without shoes", quoting Shakespeare's "I must dance barefoot on her wedding day".^[10] Merriam-Webster also records its use for an unshod horse, to members of religious orders who wear only sandals, and in carpentry to a post set without a mortise and tenon.^[6] In 19th-century American slang barefoot or barefooted whisky was whisky drunk neat, from 1847.^[11] The phrase barefoot and pregnant, a parody of sexist attitudes, dates from 1943;^[5] barefooted and pregnant appears in 1938 in Arthur Hertzler's Horse and Buggy Doctor.^[5] Northern English and Scots dialects had the forms barefit, barfit and barfut.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1000 – Old English bærfōt, with bare feet.^[3][4]
• c. 1225 – as an adverb, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as "without shoes".^[10]
• 1847 – American slang, of whisky: undiluted.^[11]
• 1938 – barefooted and pregnant.^[5]
• 1943 – barefoot and pregnant.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Wearing nothing on the feet; without shoes or stockings: The children ran barefoot across the sand.^[6][13][4]
2. Of a horse, not shod.^[6]
3. Wearing only sandals, of certain religious orders; discalced.^[6][13]
4. In carpentry, of a post or stud: fixed to a sill without a mortise and tenon.^[6][3]

Adverb

1. With bare feet: She walked barefoot to the well.^[6][4]

Word family

• barefoot doctor

Related words

• bare
• foot

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers