doorstep

Etymology

It is a compound from English door + step.^[2][3][4][5] The noun door continues dor and duru,^[3] and step continues stæpe.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A step leading up to an outer door, raising the threshold above the ground: Merriam-Webster dates it to 1767,^[6] while the OED's first quotation is from 1810, in Allan Cunningham's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song,^[2] the date Etymonline also gives.^[3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1800–10.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In British slang a doorstep was from the 1880s a thick slice of bread, from its shape;^[2][7] Green's Dictionary of Slang has a flight of doorsteps for bread and butter in a play of 1883, and notes that soldiers in the First World War called a sandwich a couple o' doorsteps.^[7] The figurative phrase on one's doorstep, very near, is recorded from 1957.^[2][5] Used attributively, as in a doorstep salesman or doorstep deliveries, it meant "door-to-door" from the early 20th century.^[5] The verb came later: from 1945, in Nancy Mitford, to leave a child in someone else's care,^[2] from 1966 to go from door to door selling or canvassing,^[2] and since 1981 of a reporter, to wait at someone's door for an interview or photograph.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1767 – a step at an outer door (OED: 1810).^[6][2]
• 1883 – a flight of doorsteps, slang for bread and butter.^[7]
• 1885 – slang, a thick slice of bread.^[2]
• 1945 – verb, to leave a child in someone else's care.^[2]
• 1957 – on one's doorstep, near by.^[2]
• 1966 – verb, to go from door to door canvassing or selling.^[2]
• 1981 – verb, of a reporter, to wait at someone's door for an interview.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A step, or one of several steps, in front of an outer door.^[8][6][2]
2. on one's doorstep: very close by: The family has a beach right on its doorstep.^[8][6][2]
3. (informal, British) A thick slice of bread.^[8][2][5]

Verb

1. To go from house to house canvassing or selling.^[8][2]
2. Of a journalist, to wait outside someone's home in order to get an interview or photograph.^[8][2]
3. To leave a child in someone else's care.^[2][5]

Related words

• door
• step
• doorway

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins