Foot — From Proto-Germanic to English | etymologist.ai
foot
/fʊt/·noun·before 900 CE·Established
Origin
From PIE *pṓds — the textbook Grimm's Law example where PIE *p→f and *d→t, linking English 'foot' to Latin 'ped-.'
Definition
The lower extremity of the leg below the ankle, on which a person stands or walks.
The Full Story
Proto-Germanicbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'fōt' (the foot, a unit of length equal to twelve inches), from Proto-Germanic *fōts (foot), from PIE *pṓds (foot) — one of the most celebrated etymological demonstrations in comparative linguistics, used to illustrate Grimm's Law with perfect regularity. PIE *p shifted to Proto-Germanic *f (giving 'foot'), while the voiced stop *d shifted to Proto-Germanic *t — together converting *pṓds into *fōts and then Old English 'fōt.' TheLatincognate
Did you know?
'Pedigree' comes from Anglo-French 'pé de grue' (crane's foot) — because the branchinglines of a genealogical chart were thought to resemble the three-toed footprint of a crane. So 'pedigree' and 'foot' share thesamePIE root *pṓds, by entirely different routes.
, visible in Latin 'pessum' (to the ground, downward) and 'impede' (to shackle the foot, to obstruct). The unit of measurement (one foot = approximately 30 cm) reflects the universal ancient practice of using body parts as measurement standards, preserved in most pre-metric European systems. Key roots: *pṓds (Proto-Indo-European: "foot").