Etymologically
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barefoot

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbɛəfʊt/[1]
  • US: /ˈbɛɹfʊt/[1]

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

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