foothold

Etymology

It is formed from English foot + hold, from the nouns foot and hold.^[2][3][4][5] Etymonline compares the parallel sense development of footing.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Firm placing of the feet, or a surface on which one can safely stand: 1577, in Holinshed's Chronicles, where the figurative sense of a secure position for further progress is also first found.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1620s and its figurative use to the 1650s,^[3] Merriam-Webster to about 1609^[6] and Dictionary.com to 1615–25.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The literal and the figurative senses appear side by side in the earliest records.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the word as space to hold the foot, ground on which one may tread surely, and quoted L'Estrange's fable of a tree whose roots were dug away until it had so little foothold that the first gust of wind threw it down.^[4] From 1692, also in L'Estrange, it was used of a place where a plant can take root.^[2] In 19th-century North America a foothold was also a light rubber overshoe held on by a strap round the ankle, a sense now rare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1577 – a firm placing of the feet, or a place to stand; also a secure position from which to advance.^[2]
• 1692 – a place where a plant can take root.^[2]
• 1851 – in North America, a light rubber overshoe held on by an ankle strap.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place, such as a ledge or notch, that gives secure support for the foot, as in climbing: He found a foothold in the crack and pulled himself up.^[7][8][2]
2. A secure position from which further progress can be made: The company gained a foothold in the Asian market.^[7][8][6]
3. A place where a plant can take root.^[2]

Related words

• toehold
• footing

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin