Foot

Foot - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

FOOT, n. plu. feet. [L. pes, pedis. Probably this word is allied to the Gr. to walk, to tread. Eng. verb, to tread.]

1. In animal bodies, the lower extremity of the leg; the part of the leg which treads the earth in standing or walking, and by which the animal is sustained and enabled to step.

2. That which bears some resemblance to an animal's foot in shape or office; the lower end of any thing that supports a body; as the foot of a table.

3. The lower part; the base; as the foot of a column or of a mountain.

4. The lower part; the bottom; as the foot of an account; the foot of a sail.

5. Foundation; condition; state. We are not on the same foot with our fellow citizens. In this sense, it is more common, in America, to use footing; and in this sense the plural is not used.

6. Plan of establishment; fundamental principles. Our constitution may hereafter be placed on a better foot.

[In this sense the plural is not used.]

7. In military language, soldiers who march and fight on foot; infantry, as distinguished from cavalry.

[In this sense the plural is not used.]

8. A measure consisting of twelve inches; supposed to be taken from the length of a man's foot. Geometricians divide the foot into 10 digits, and the digit into 10 lines.

9. In poetry, a certain number of syllables, constituting part of a verse; as the iambus, the dactyl, and the spondee.

10. Step; pace.

11. Level; par. obs.

12. The part of a stocking or boot which receives the foot.

By foot, or rather, on foot, by walking, as to go or pass on foot; or by fording, as to pass a stream on foot. See the next definition.

To set on foot, to originate; to begin; to put in motion; as, to set on foot a subscription. Hence, to be on foot, is to be in motion, action or process of execution.

FOOT, v.i.

1. To dance; to tread to measure or music; to skip.

2. To walk; opposed to ride or fly. In this sense, the word is commonly followed by it.

If you are for a merry jaunt, I'll try, for once, who can foot it farthest.

FOOT, v.t.

1. To kick; to strike with the foot; to spurn.

2. To settle; to begin to fix. [Little used.]

3. To tread; as, to foot the green.

4. To add the numbers in a column, and set the sum at the foot; as, to foot an account.

5. To seize and hold with the foot. [Not used.]

6. To add or make a foot; as, to foot a stocking or boot.

foot (reghel, qarcol (only twice in parallel passages: 2Sa 22:37 = Ps 18:36, where it probably means ankle); pous): The dusty roads of Palestine and other eastern lands make a much greater care of the feet necessary than we are accustomed to bestow upon them. The absence of socks or stockings, the use of sandals and low shoes rather than boots and, to an even greater degree, the frequent habit of walking barefoot make it necessary to wash the feet repeatedly every day. This is always done when entering the house, especially the better upper rooms which are usually carpeted. It is a common dictate of good manners to perform this duty to a visitor, either personally or through a servant; at least water for washing has to be presented (Ge 18:4; Lu 7:44). This has therefore become almost synonymous with the bestowal of hospitality (1Ti 5:10). At an early date this service was considered one of the lowest tasks of servants (1Sa 25:41), probably because the youngest and least trained servants were charged with the task, or because of the idea of defilement connected with the foot. It was, for the same reason, if rendered voluntarily, a service which betokened complete devotion. Jesus taught the greatest lesson of humility by performing this humble service to His disciples (Joh 13:4-15). The undoing of the latchets or leather thongs of the sandals (Mr 1:7; Lu 3:16; Joh 1:27) seems to refer to the same menial duty.

Often the feet and shoes were dusted on the highway, as is being done in the Orient to this day, but if it were done in an ostentatious manner in the presence of a person or a community who had refused hospitality to a stranger, it was understood in the same sense in which the cutting in two of the tablecloth was considered in the days of knighthood: it meant rejection and separation (Mt 10:14; Ac 13:51).

The roads of the desert were not only dusty but rough, and the wanderer was almost sure to ruin his ill-made shoes and wound his weary feet. A special providence of God protected the children of Israel from this experience during the long journey through the wilderness. "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years" (De 8:4; 29:5).

In the house shoes and sandals were never worn; even the most delicate would put on shoes only when going out (De 28:56). The shoes were left outside of the house or in a vestibule. This was especially done in the house of God and at the time of prayer, for whenever or wherever that might be, the law was: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Ex 3:5; Jos 5:15; Ac 7:33). This custom still prevails among the Moslems of our day. Probably it was the idea of defilement through contact with the common ground which gave rise to its moral application by the Preacher, "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God" (Ec 5:1 (Hebrew 4:17)).

Nakedness of the feet in public, especially among the wealthier classes, who used to wear shoes or sandals, was a token of mourning (Eze 24:17 and probably also Jer 2:25 and Isa 20:2-4). A peculiar ceremony is referred to in De 25:9,10, whereby a brother-in-law, who refused to perform his duty under the Levirate law, was publicly put to shame. "And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed." See also Ru 4:7,8.

Numerous are the phrases in which the word "foot" or "feet" is used in Biblical language. "To cover the feet" (1Sa 24:3) is synonymous with obeying a call of Nature. "To speak with the feet" is expressive of the eloquence of abusive and obscene gesticulation among oriental people, where hands, eyes and feet are able to express much without the use of words (Pr 6:13). "To sit at the feet," means to occupy the place of a learner (De 33:3; Lu 10:39; Ac 22:3). Vanquished enemies had to submit to being trodden upon by the conqueror (a ceremony often represented on Egyptian monuments; Jos 10:24; Ps 8:6; 110:1; compare Isa 49:23). James warns against an undue humiliation of those who join us in the service of God, even though they be poor or mean-looking, by bidding them to take a lowly place at the feet of the richer members of the congregation (Jas 2:3). We read of dying Jacob that "he gathered up his feet into the bed," for he had evidently used his bed as a couch, on which he had been seated while delivering his charge to his several sons (Ge 49:33). "Foot" or "feet" is sometimes used euphemistically for the genitals (De 28:57; Eze 16:25). In De 11:10 an interesting reference is made to some Egyptian mode of irrigating the fields, `the watering with the foot,' which mode would be unnecessary in the promised land of Canaan which "drinketh water of the rain of heaven." It is, however, uncertain whether this refers to the water-wheels worked by a treadmill arrangement or whether reference is made to the many tributary channels, which, according to representations on the Egyptian monuments, intersected the gardens and fields and which could be stopped or opened by placing or removing a piece of sod at the mouth of the channel. This was usually done with the foot. Frequently we find references to the foot in expressions connected with journeyings and pilgrimages, which formed so large a part in the experiences of Israel, e.g. Ps 91:12, "lest thou dash thy foot against a stone"; 94:18, "My foot slippeth"; 121:3, "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved," and many more. Often the reference is to the "walk," i.e. the moral conduct of life (Ps 73:2; Job 23:11; 31:5).

Figurative: In the metaphorical language of Isa 52:7 "the feet" are synonymous with "the coming."

H. L. E. Luering