footstep

Etymology

It is formed from English foot + step,^[2][3][4] in Middle English fotstep.^[5][6] Its earliest forms, such as fet steppes, have the plural of the first element.^[2][6] Foot is from Old English fōt, and step is from Old English stæpe, which could itself mean a footprint in Old English.^[4] Compare Middle Dutch voetstap, Middle Low German vōtstap, Old High German fuozstapho and German Fußstapfe.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A footprint: "Alle hise fet steppes after him he filleð", said of the lion in the Middle English Physiologus or Bestiary, in a manuscript from before 1300 of a text dated about 1275.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the early 13th century,^[4] Dictionary.com Unabridged to 1175–1225,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 13th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the print of a foot the word extended to a mark left by anything: a Chauliac translation from before 1425 has "stracez or fotesteppez", and the Middle English Dictionary also records a scar left by a skin disease.^[2][6] From about 1440 it could mean the act of stepping or its sound,^[2] though Etymonline dates "a tread or fall of the foot" only to the 1530s.^[4] The figure of following in someone's tracks appears in G. Hay's Buke of Knychthede, in a manuscript of about 1485, where knights should "folow..the futsteppis" of Christ;^[2] Etymonline dates the expression to the 1540s.^[4] Johnson (1755) lists a track, a token and an example.^[8] The footprint sense now survives chiefly in the figurative phrase.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1300 – a footprint.^[2][6]
• before 1425 – a mark or trace left by something.^[2]
• c. 1440 – an act of stepping; the sound it makes.^[2]
• c. 1485 – in figures of following a person's example.^[2]
• 1549 – a raised step or stair, especially on a vehicle.^[2]
• 1570 – the distance covered by a step.^[2]
• 1683 – in printing, a block on which a pressman steps for leverage.^[2]
• 1836 – a bearing for the foot of an upright shaft.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An act of stepping, or the sound it makes: We heard footsteps on the gravel.^[9][5][2]
2. The distance covered by a step; a pace.^[9][5][2]
3. A footprint: a line of footsteps across the wet sand.^[9][5][2]
4. A step for going up or down, especially on the outside of a vehicle.^[9][5][2]
5. follow in someone's footsteps: to take the same course as someone before.^[9][5][2]
6. A trace or sign left by something.^[5][2]
7. A bearing that takes the foot of an upright shaft; also footstep bearing.^[5][3][2]

Related words

• foot
• step

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 t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins