Etymograph

English

foot

Foot comes from Middle English fot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-Germanic *fōts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pṓds1‘foot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fōts1‘foot’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fōt1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150fōt1‘foot’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fot1‘foot’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1597foot1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English foot
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wiues of Windsor: “thieves do foot by night”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pṓdsWiktionary, English foot‘foot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fōtsWiktionary, English foot‘foot’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fōtWiktionary, English footreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150fōtWiktionary, English foot‘foot’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fotWiktionary, English foot‘foot’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1597footWiktionary, English foot. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wiues of Windsor: “thieves do foot by night”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with foot, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *ped- ‘to walk, to step’

  • pilot ← pilota ← *πηδώτης ← πηδόν ← *pēd-ó-
  • expedition ← expeditio ← expediō ← pedis
  • fetch ← fecchen ← feċċan ← fatian ← *fatōn
  • impeachment ← empechement
  • expedite ← expedītus ← expediō ← pedis
  • impediment ← impedimentum ← impedio ← pēs
  • ped ← πέδον ← *pedóm
  • fet ← fetten ← fetian ← *fatōn ← *fatōną
  • fetter ← feter ← feter ← *feturaz
  • pada ← पद ← *padám ← *padám ← *ped-óm

through Proto-Indo-European *pṓds

  • feet ← fēt ← *fōtiz ← *pódes
  • pie ← पाई ← पादिका ← पाद ← पाद॑म्

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Today it means

noun A biological structure found in many animals that is used for locomotion and that is frequently a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “foot”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pṓds / foot