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#47695 11/13/01 02:33 AM
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Ever think upon the soles as being the arch angels of inspiration? There's a lot of heavy weighted matter that rests upon their little pit-a-pats.

It might be fun to take a look at the words that arise from our most direct connection with terra firma as we attempt to ascend from them into the infinite.

I'll proffer some obvious, and not-so-obvious ones, and see whether any of you may enjoy following me, nelipot barefoot or not, down this rarely trodden word path:

podium
podiatrist
podiatry Added edit: chiropody; chiropodist
pad (as a verb, it is immediately kinetic and onomatopeoic)
pelmatogram
hamble (why would anyone want to do this to a dog?)
pigeon-toed
slew-foot (not sure of spelling; too lazy to liu)
flat-footed
en pointe
............to get us started....or nowhere

Eager as always to read what you might shuffle up,
WordWalk


#47696 11/13/01 05:26 AM
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So, WW, if we join your exclusive club, will we be members of Club Foot?

Pseudopodia - does that count?
Pedal
Orthopaedic


Pedestrian



#47697 11/13/01 05:55 AM
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Do phrases count? Don't walk on your toes or Walks on his/her toes. just don't ask Max if elephants have toenails, PUHLEASE!


#47698 11/13/01 10:03 AM
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Whitman, sure phrases count as long as we don't tiptoe around the subject.

And we should have some degree of decorum in not pointing out any heels here.

My favorite expression for being gay is "light in the heels"--hope that doesn't offend anyone. I just think the phrase is cute.

Then there are:

down in the heels
at one's heels
kick up one's heels

There's also a verb for fighting with one's feet that I've forgotten, but will look for it today unless someone else remembers it first.

Did I spell slew-foot correctly?

Best regards,
WW


#47699 11/13/01 10:31 AM
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Geoff:

pseudopod/pseudopodium = a stretch, but good to include among these footnotes as a prime examaple of a foot-not.
Does pronate mean to the stretch the foot? Need to check that today...Nope, I just checked it and pronate means to turn the arm or hand downwards.

Savate was the word I was thinking of for boxing, not only with the hands, but also with the feet.

Also: having itchy feet = wanderlust?


#47700 11/13/01 04:03 PM
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I'll take us right into the gutter with Foot fetish

More
as you may or may not know, the grey matter of you brain is folded.. think of a large sheet of newpaper fold again and again to fit into a smaller space. Since information tends to be mapped to a specific part of the brain, these fold can cause area of the body -- with no relationship to each other to be very close..

the face --especailly the cheek of the face-- lies next to the fingers.. and in people who have lost fingers, stroking their face "reads" like touching their fingers.. the finger area of the brain, since it no longer was recieving any input--tends to merge with the area next to it.. in this case the Face.

an other common cross over of "sensation" is the feet and the genitals. these mapped areas are very close, and for unknown reasons, there is often a cross over.. maybe because its common to play with babies feet, (this little piggy, and other games) maybe because both have some many nerve endings.. but for what ever reason, it is very common to have a cross over of sensation between the areas.. usually it is mild.. and we "play footsie" or enjoy a foot massage, or just find feet, or shoes to be attractive or if a bit more intense, enjoy having our toes kissed or sucked on.. in extreme cases, the foot becomes the center for stimulation.. and one has a foot fetish... for the same reason, there is the common myth that foot size is related to the size of other parts of the anatomy...
Well that should keep us on our toes for today...




#47701 11/13/01 04:27 PM
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more pedestrian words: expedite, fetter, centipede, trivet, antipodes(!), and (of course) sesquipedalian and parallelepiped.


#47702 11/13/01 04:33 PM
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Knock-kneed,goose-stepping,tip-toeing, jackboot clomping;,stomping,heel and toeing,pirouetting,flatfoot flooging,roller blading,skating,gumshoeing,tap-dancing,twinkle toeing


#47703 11/13/01 04:55 PM
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In looking up "pelmatogram"=footprint, I encountered alleged synonym "anichnogram" could find no confirmation


#47704 11/13/01 05:05 PM
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re:having itchy feet = wanderlust?

or being foot loose (and fancy-free)

working (or walking) heel to toe..
have we had High stepping?
i am sure i saw Down trodden.. not from the same root.. but related.


#47705 11/13/01 05:09 PM
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Dr bill you got tip-toeing and tap-dancing but missed Toe tapping!


#47706 11/13/01 06:57 PM
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The metrical foot is the basic unit of meter. The most common metrical feet and their patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables are as follows:
iamb: X /
trochee: / X
anapest: X X /
dactyl: / X X
spondee: / /
pyrrhic: X X
The meter of a poem is determined by the predominant metrical foot, and by the number of feet per line that predominates in the poem. The following terms indicate the number of feet per line:
monometer: one foot per line
dimeter: two feet per line
trimeter: three feet per line
tetrameter: four feet per line
pentameter: five feet per line
hexameter: six feet per line
heptameter: seven feet per line
octameter: eight feet per line
Although there are terms for longer lines, the fact is that if a line gets much beyond eight feet (and even if it approaches eight feet), it tends to break into two shorter lines, simply because the speaker must pause for breath.


http://nv.essortment.com/metricalfoot_rxjm.htm

ofTroy: Your whitewashed observations were most edifying. Sounds as though our brains hold a contortionist version of ourselves.

Best regards,
Westwords-Ho!


#47707 11/13/01 07:36 PM
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a little bit of foot work here-- (i looked at the Engrish site again-- hadn't in months and notices the sign on the door "Emergency Trap"-- it wa pointed out that Trap means stairs in dutch--and i realized, of course-- the Palisades of NJ use to be mined-- for Trap rock-- kind of fine basalt that forms steps...) i wanted to see if there was an other meaning of trap in English meaning stairs. i was thinking about a trap door, but while on the page of my M-W 10th, i tripped over trapezium-- and found a four footed table.. who'd a thought! trapeze and trapizoid come from the same roots..


#47708 11/13/01 07:39 PM
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Bravo, tsuwm, on parallelepiped Till looking it up, I imagined parallel lines of flautists padding away while tooting...

Hoof and mouth disease
Hoofed it out of there
Gait
Guccis
Mocassins
Sneakers
Slippers

If a woman's second toe is the longest, she will dominate any romantic relationship (Just thought I'd throw that little bit of folk wisdom on board...)

Sticking one's foot into one's mouth (I am gifted at this)
Marching orders
Shuffle off to Buffalo
Time step
Pitter-patter of little feet
Toe in the door
Foot in the door
"Your mother wears army boots!" (This is just for Jackie, whom I quote from the insult thread...)
Shoe store
"We're going to have a really big shoe!" Ed Sullivan
"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe."
Silk stockings
Socks
Anklets
Seamless stockings

Trod, plod, shod, hop, skip, jump, spring, spin, twist, sprint, ramble, scramble, jaunter, lollygag, loiter, break away...

And there's got to be a verb for the musician who keeps time by beating his toe inside his shoe...

Then there's relevé and jeté...and probably lots of others like these.


#47709 11/13/01 07:57 PM
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Oh dub dubya, i go one better than sticking my foot in my mouth--
i have been know to open my mouth only to change feet!

and you missed Blue Stocking.

and trapped in an other way we have an impediment..


#47710 11/13/01 08:23 PM
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So, ofTroy, if we think deeply about roots, a speech impediment is really a veiled way of saying one has put one's foot into one's mouth? And also something could be expedient--so maybe a speech expedient would be one's ability to ameliorate our speech impediments, hmmm?

And, to add to tsuwm's centipede, can't overlook the millipede...
Oedipus (It means something like crippled or wounded foot)
Now what about octopus? 8-what?
And paddleboats...
And pedal-pushers...
And pedestals...
"Put the pedal to the metal."
"Walk a mile for a Camel."
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"
"Shoe" by Jeff MacNelly
Santa fills stockings, and in some places, shoes...
Then there's the great Romantic composer, Franz Shoebert...
Shoe horns are blown by heels.
Athlete's foot
Foot - length of 12 inches
"Deadman walking" (very sad to consider, really)



#47711 11/13/01 08:24 PM
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Dear of troy: your trap rock is found in many places where successively smaller outpourings of basalt made like giant steps for which apparently Norwegian word is trap, like German Treppen meaning stairs. Like in Treppenwitz, the clever retort that comes to you too late on the stairs going out. And did anybody trip the light fantastic?


#47712 11/13/01 08:29 PM
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wwh: On the trap, is this the rock of which the Giant's Causeway has been formed?


#47713 11/13/01 08:38 PM
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I think the Giant's Causeway is different. The thing about it that is spectacular is that the magma cooled in such way as to form long vertical prisms with small hexagonal cross section. I read article about it in Scientific American a few years ago but can't remember details. I found several sites about traps, but they were so long I doubted they would be enjoyed.


#47714 11/13/01 08:48 PM
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'Treppenwitz' is an expression for the case when a joke comes to your mind too late, when you're already descending the staircase.

bill, you don't know how long I looked for a word/phrase for this concept, until discovering about a year ago the F. phrase l'esprit d'escalier; the wit of the staircase.


#47715 11/13/01 08:56 PM
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Dear tsuwm: I can't remember where I first found mention of "l'ésprit de l'escalier" It took me a long time to find it in Internet, and then in was buried in series of sites about music groups. It was a couple months later that I found Treppenwitz, can't remember where. It interests me in a way because it is one of the few phrases where German in more succinct than the French.


#47716 11/13/01 08:59 PM
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wwh: I performed a search on Google and entered the search like this:

"Giant's Causeway" trap

With what came up, I found the following information about the trap, a type of volcanic rock, of which the causeway, it turns out, is formed:

PHYSICAL FEATURES
As regards minerals in the county, the sub-soil is basalt or trap, which forms the Giant's causesway on the north coast, clay-slate and limestone; there was coal at Ballycastle, and salt mines near Carrickfergus; and iron ore in the hill region extending from Larne to Cushendall <../Glimpses.htm>. The ore was shipped from Larne, Glenarm, Carnlough and Red Bay to the ports of Cumberland, Wales and Clyde. There are numerous large bogs in the county.


http://www.from-ireland.net/descrs/antrimdescr.htm

Best regards,
WordFriend


#47717 11/13/01 09:08 PM
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Dear WW: I guess the magma is the same, but the outpourings were much more massive in the Siberian, Decccan and other traps, which are really huge, thousands of square miles iin area. So perhaps the big places got noticed and named first, and then it was noticed that the composition of other smaller formations was the same.


#47718 11/13/01 09:18 PM
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the west bank of the Hudson (north river inside of NYC, and this area is) is called the Palisades-- (some old timers will remember an early 1960's R & R hit Palisades Park, named for the same) is a basalt layer that was layed down long, long ago(help me whitman, back in the days of tex rex i think) .. and Up ended -- so it is now perpendicular. it too has the same hexogon crystaization-- but not as regualar as the giants causeway.

the Palisades were being mined for trap rock, and the Rockefellers bought up most of the land, and donated to the state- provide it was made it into parks--there is a Palisades parkway, and rugged trails between the two main parts of the park, Apline landing and Stateline park (the state line of NY/NJ. Most of the park is in NJ. the there is an other out cropping up state.. (a german/dutch name, skrunks? for short?) famous place for rock climbing...

what is nice is they are not quite perpendicular-- but off by 10 to 15 degrees or so.. (not 90, but 80 to 75 degrees. just enough of a slope that you can climb them.. (well i could and did in my youth.. now i am way to much out of shape.) but steep enough to seem almost straight up!


#47719 11/13/01 10:09 PM
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Also: having itchy feet = wanderlust?

More likely tinea pedis, or athlete's foot.


#47720 11/13/01 11:02 PM
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And we should have some degree of decorum in not pointing out any heels here.

Aw, shucks!...and I was going to wax interthreadual and offer Achilles heel. (Words from Greek Mythology).

foot-and-mouth disease

And don't forget the formidable foot-in-mouth disease. It's horribly contagious, and there always seems to be outbreaks of varying degrees right on this board!

basalt Basalt is an igneous rock, of troy (as opposed to metamorphic or sedimentary), the oldest and most basic rock formations on the planet, formed by volcanic lava flows. These rocks can date back to the dawn of time and can actually be billions of years old. They're solid and massive, and their upheavals are due to erosion and seismic activity. Fossils are rarely, if ever, found, in this type of rock, because the process of their formation destroys any organic remains. Except, a few years back, some paleomicrobiologists claimed to have found the fossils of microbes in some igneous formations that were 2 billion years old!...however, the jury is still out on that one. [edit: I should have mentioned that the ancient microbial fossils were deemed to be algae]


#47721 11/13/01 11:06 PM
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One of my personal favorites "Jump in feet first." Geronimo!


#47722 11/13/01 11:15 PM
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And thinking about Geronimo reminded me of "The Long Walk" and "The Trail of Tears".


#47723 11/13/01 11:24 PM
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My little wading pool is going dry...

Let's see: There are "feet of clay"
And a Labrador retriever has webbed toes...but can't recall the exact term...

There must be a wealth of terms to describe various birds' feet. Do we have a resident ornithologist on board?

There are toenails, toenail clippers and a pedicure...
And a football, but that's a sport...
Up north there are the Finger Lakes--are there any Toe Lakes?
Well, at least there's Toelstoi and Toelkein...
And pickled pigs' feet, foot stools, and fallen arches...
And what do you call those clamps you put on your shoes to aerate the lawn?
Cowboy boots, and thigh-boots, and rubber boots, and snakeskin boots and wading boots...
Wooden shoes and clogs, high-heeled sneakers and jogging shoes...flip-flops, mules, ruby slippers...Oxfords, spectator shoes, and Cinderella's glass slippers...

How 'bout the pedal-operated sewing machine? Does it have a special name?
And what do you call it when you pace back and forth like a tiger in a cage?
Charleston, Big Apple, Watusi, and the bop...
Tango, calypso, rhumba, samba, and mambo...
Hula and hip-hop, polka and waltz, Bunny Hop and Macarena,
and the Electric Slide...
There are catwalks and ballhooters and spingboards and trampolines...
There are bunions and callouses and blisters...
There's walking down the Primrose Path...

I still would like to know why dogs are hambled...
Oh, my achin' feet!

And speaking of going in feet first in a post above, what about the canonball!!


#47724 11/14/01 12:20 AM
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My little wading pool is going dry...

Judging by the number of topics you brought up after this sentence, I would say it's closer to overflowing than drying up!

Anyway, to my point. I came across a foot reference while listening to Prokofiev's stunning film score for Alexander Nevsky. There is a Latin phrase used as a refrain several times: Peregrinus expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis est. The translation (according to the liner notes) is as follows: "As a wanderer, I expected my feet to be shod in cymbals."

Does anyone recognize this phrase? Is it a quote from somewhere? I'm curious as to its precise meaning and derivation.



#47725 11/14/01 12:33 AM
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Rapunzel: I hope you receive or find the answer to your question. I was about to go to bed, but wanted to read the last post, which was yours. It reminded me of the nursery rhyme:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes.


...just a tangent, but thought you might enjoy this while thinking about cymbals on a traveler's feet, whether symbolic or otherwise...

Oh, and another footnote from Mrs. Byrne:

rasorial adj. -- habitually scratching the ground in search of food.

Bon soir,
DubDub

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The columns at The Devils Causeway in Ireland (and elsewhere basaltic flows are found) are a product of the lava's cooling. The cracks occur at right angles to the top and bottom of the flow and form columns that are inevitably six sided. The hexagonal cross-section reflects the fact the dominant stresses in the cooling rock are planar, parallel with the flow's surface.

The columns in the cliffs behind Bombo beach at Kiama on the New South Wales south coast occur in a rock unit with the charming name of the "Bumbo Latite"! Latite is a cousin-brother of basalt. A little further south, one of the columns has fallen out of a flow that protrudes into the sea. This forms "The Little Blowhole" - lots of fun to drop things into just as the swell rushes up the underside of the flow!!

stales


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howsabout the CRS version: "plates" (of meat).

stales


#47728 11/14/01 03:12 AM
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ruby slippers

No...that's Rhuby Slippers around here!


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If you don't toe the line you'll get the boot.

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Now, if something's useless, it's bootless..

And I just learned something: We're familiar with a pirate's booty, but I didn't realize that the baby slipper was spelled differently: bootee or bootie. So, three spellings for the cost of one on the Scrabble board!

And, since we're got the Achilles' heel mentioned in a post above, we can't forget the elevator boots used in Greek theatre: kothurnos--but my spelling is incorrect here. Can anyone help?

WW


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Rhuby Slippers

Personally, being a Londoner, I wear daisy roots

And, at the end of a long day, standing beside at me barrer, me dogs really kill me, and I'm glad to put me feet up!


#47732 11/14/01 02:44 PM
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bill, I'd forgotten(!) that there is an english word that's sort of related to those 'wit of the staircase' words. afterwit is given by Mrs. Byrne as the locking of the barn door after the cows have gone or, less prosaically, knowledge that is gained too late to do any good.

this seems like a perfectly good word to bring out of obs. and apply to our concept.

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Dear tsuwm: Afterwit has merit of compactness. Latewit might be possible. Josepha was having a bad day with the locking the barn after the cows are gone . Cows are put in stanchions, which close comfortably behind their heads, allowing them to eat the grain that is the enticement to submit to the restraint, while awaiting milking. Reminds me of joke of farmer who was refused marital privileges during spat with wife. One of the cows had stanchion closure defective. Farmer started to urinate in manure trough behind that cow. The sudden noise startled the cow, so she started to back out of stall. Farmer grasped her tail to prevent this. Just then the wife entered barn, and would never accept farmer's explanation of what his two hands were doing.


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Smart too late...

What do you call the sum of a long column of figures?


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As a smart alec I would call it the sum. I would scorn to call it "the bottom line".


#47736 11/15/01 08:00 AM
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The sumtotal?

stales

(A long line of figures eh.....reminds me of when I volunteered to judge the local Lions Club's fashion parade......on the basis that I was good with figures!!)


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Dear stales: I didn't use "sum total" because I thought it would be tautological. But when I looked in my dictionary just now it gives "sum total" and points out that it is the total of a series of sums. Depending on the method of adding. If I don't use calculator, I add the units column, etc. So this aleck outsmarted himself.


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Well, keeping in line with the "Footnotes" thread title, I thought you might like to know that AHD defines "footing" as the sum of a column of figures, a use of footing I had never heard before.

WW


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I see no merit in that definition.


#47740 11/15/01 04:23 PM
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foot, v. - 4 a : to add up b : to pay or stand credit for <foot the bill>


#47741 11/15/01 05:43 PM
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I wonder how long the US must remain on a war footing.


#47742 11/15/01 09:13 PM
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Just to answer your question about the name of the sewing machine with the foot pedal. The old ones built around 1900 were called Treadle Machines and they take some coordination to operate but they are fun if you can get the parts to maintain it.


#47743 11/15/01 10:39 PM
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Thanks, Satin, for the name of the treadle sewing machine.
Off hand, I don't think tread has been mentioned here at all, so that's a good addition.

wwh, I'm sorry you don't like footing for a sum of a long column of figures, but I like do like it although hardly anyone in this world would understand me if I used it, so it's destined to be a WAD word and probably nothing else save in my dreams. Bon soir...


#47744 11/15/01 11:15 PM
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Dear WW: my favorite pastime is bitching about dictionaries.


#47745 11/16/01 12:08 AM
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And, since we haven't gotten into tread and variations other than the treadle machine, there's also the treadmill.
And, speaking of treading, did you realize that that's the verb for copulation by a male bird? wwh, there really is a lot of fun to be found in reading the dictionary, in spite of its occasionally bitchiness...

Also, treading water, or walking in water...

And then there's those who tramp and those who trample...
(When you think of tramping around, betcha' never thought of tramping on the trampoline! Which, for some odd reason, reminds me of a kindergartner I once taught. I held up a tambourine and asked, "What is the name of this instrument?" All the hands went up; in kindergarten all the hands always go up. I called on a particularly vigorously waving hand, and the child to which it was attached answered confidently, "A tangerine!")

Edit: I just found another bird foot word:
zygodactyl - ( )
Having two toes pointing forward and two backwards


http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/z.htm


...still looking for an ornithologist

#47746 11/16/01 12:20 AM
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wwh: Here's all I could find on anichnogram on Google:

Here, in this book, is where you will find rhyming words like "flavicomous" and "auricomous" which refer to yellow hair and golden hair or "anichnogram" and "pelmatogram" which has to do with a footprint. Their definitions are listed in the glossary in the back of the book.

from: "Words to Rhyme With" by Willard R. Espy

http://www.epinions.com/book-review-78D5-7752225-3A2E2B97-prod1

It's probably the same url you encountered. However, I must note that it's a great Scrabble word to play upon gram. Seven letters added and all those bonus points, but it's probably not in the lexicon used for championship games, alas....

DubDub

PS: In Googling hamble, which resulted in nothing edifying, I came across the earliest known form of Egyptian amputation. And, since it involved the toe and a prosthetic toe, thought you might like reading about it on:

http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/slup/CuttingEdge/Jan01/toe.html

#47747 11/16/01 02:30 AM
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pseudopod/pseudopodium = a stretch, but good to include among these footnotes as a prime examaple of a foot-not.
Kudos for foot-not, my dear.

it's destined to be a WAD word and probably nothing else save in my dreams. Bon soir...
But every word here is a WAD word...





#47748 11/16/01 04:23 AM
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And don't forget the theatrical footlights!insel, are you there?


#47749 11/16/01 04:49 AM
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Have we mentioned first footing?

Bingley


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If we are nimble of foot we could trip the light fantastic-- in the glow of WO'N footlights..

and nimble of foot also leads to nimble toed--

i suppose trip above really means travel, not stumble.. which you could do if you have two left feet
and the next time you see see some one stumble, you can comment "Did you have a nice trip? See you again next fall." which is only polite to say when a mishap has damaged nothing more than their dignity--since it make them laugh, and distracts them from situation.


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and the next time you see see some one stumble, you can comment "Did you have a nice trip? See you again next fall." which is only polite to say when a mishap has damaged nothing more than their dignity--since it make them laugh, and distracts them from situation.

Or next time some one trips : "I didn't realize you were falling for me." (running trippingly for -- ooops! -e)




#47752 11/17/01 03:39 PM
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speaking of treading, did you realize that that's the verb for copulation by a male bird?

Hence the saying, "Fowls rush in where wise men fear to tread?"


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have we mentioned "toe the line" and "step to it"?

and one particularly apt for WW's original request for words that arise from our most direct connection: "round-heels broad".


#47754 11/17/01 07:21 PM
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Ah another Flatline... i hid Round heel in my heading about Foot fetish.. (seems to be natural pairing.)

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Hence the saying, "Fowls rush in where wise men fear to tread?"...Geoff

...and that line bears repeating, Geoff! Great joke. Said the birdie-she with a headache to the birdie-he, "Don't tread on me!"

A cadence in music is something you either dance or march to. Cadence comes from "to fall"--so I wonder whether long time ago, the falling was understood to be the fall of the foot more than the fall of the beat?

WordWondering...


P.S. Here's a foot fact that I tripped over:
Did you know that there are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in each pair of feet that release nearly a cup of moisture every day?


http://www.footcaredirect.com/footfacts.html

There's also a little foot quiz on that page. Problem in taking the quiz was reading that there are more joints in the foot than there are bones. What gives here?

#47756 11/18/01 02:26 PM
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I hope it's ok to paste these heel terms here; there are some great finds that I've put into italics:

Heel (v. i.) To lean or tip to one side, as a ship; as, the ship heels aport; the boat heeled over when the squall struck it.
Heel (n.) The hinder part of the foot; sometimes, the whole foot; -- in man or quadrupeds.
Heel (n.) The hinder part of any covering for the foot, as of a shoe, sock, etc.; specif., a solid part projecting downward from the hinder part of the sole of a boot or shoe.
Heel (n.) The latter or remaining part of anything; the closing or concluding part.
Heel (n.) Anything regarded as like a human heel in shape; a protuberance; a knob.
Heel (n.) The part of a thing corresponding in position to the human heel; the lower part, or part on which a thing rests
Heel (n.) The after end of a ship's keel.
Heel (n.) The lower end of a mast, a boom, the bowsprit, the sternpost, etc.
Heel (n.) In a small arm, the corner of the but which is upwards in the firing position.
Heel (n.) The uppermost part of the blade of a sword, next to the hilt.
Heel (n.) The part of any tool next the tang or handle; as, the heel of a scythe.
Heel (n.) Management by the heel, especially the spurred heel; as, the horse understands the heel well.
Heel (n.) The lower end of a timber in a frame, as a post or rafter. In the United States, specif., the obtuse angle of the lower end of a rafter set sloping.
Heel (n.) A cyma reversa; -- so called by workmen.
Heeled (imp. & p. p.) of Heel
Heeling (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Heel
Heel (v. t.) To perform by the use of the heels, as in dancing, running, and the like.
Heel (v. t.) To add a heel to; as, to heel a shoe.
Heel (v. t.) To arm with a gaff, as a cock for fighting.
Heelball (n.) A composition of wax and lampblack, used by shoemakers for polishing, and by antiquaries in copying inscriptions.Personal note by WW: anothr great Scrabble word along with lampblack
Heeler (n.) A cock that strikes well with his heels or spurs.
Heeler (n.) A dependent and subservient hanger-on of a political patron.
Heelless (a.) Without a heel.
Heelpiece (n.) A piece of armor to protect the heels.
Heelpiece (n.) A piece of leather fixed on the heel of a shoe.
Heelpiece (n.) The end Another dubdub comment: could be the last post on a thread, not to be confused with what follows below, a heelpost
Heelpost (n.) The post supporting the outer end of a propeller shaft.
Heelpost (n.) The post to which a gate or door is hinged.
Heelpost (n.) The quoin post of a lock gate.
Heelspur (n.) A slender bony or cartilaginous process developed from the heel bone of bats. It helps to support the wing membranes. See Illust. of Cheiropter.
Heeltap (n.) One of the segments of leather in the heel of a shoe.
Heeltap (n.) A small portion of liquor left in a glass after drinking.
Heeltapped (imp. & p. p.) of Heeltap
Heeltapping (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Heeltap
Heeltap (v. t.) To add a piece of leather to the heel of (a shoe, boot, etc.)
Heeltool (n.) A tool used by turners in metal, having a bend forming a heel near the cutting end.

http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~ralph/OPTED/v003/wb1913_h.html


Dub




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A long time ago I saw a billboard in an Elevated station with an ad for "The All-American Heel", showing a pretty girl exclaiming "I'm in love with the All-American Heel!" Someone had written under that with lipstick in large letters "Tough luck, sister, I married him."


#47758 11/18/01 04:38 PM
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classicaly (or at least since the victorian) women glow, men perspire, and horses sweat.

but as WW points out: P.S. Here's a foot fact that I tripped over:
Did you know that there are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in each pair of feet that release nearly a cup of moisture every day?


Human are the sweatiest animal on earth. we have more sweat glands, and excrete more sweat than anything else. and needless to say, in this day an age, most of us hardly ever break a sweat.

for more information than you want about sweat, you could search the annals of Natural History Magazine Earlier this year (MAY?) they had an article about sweat.



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of Troy: My mom and dad used to live in Florida and took house guests to the races for a diversion.

My dad always instructed me, "Bet on the horse that has broken out in the biggest sweat. It will usually win." Well, I would bet as instructed, but rarely did my horse win.

Back to those 250,000 sweat glands in the foot: You wouldn't think there would be any room for muscle, tendon and bone with so many glands taking up space.

I like the quote from Leonardo da Vinci on the link I posted above:

(the foot): "a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art"...


#47760 11/18/01 07:29 PM
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A young lady who spent a summer in Italy in the early thirties told me that she was chided for saying the word "foot" because it was unmentionable in Roman society. j


#47761 11/18/01 09:27 PM
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And, of course, football, as applied to both American football and soccer.


#47762 11/19/01 05:17 AM
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A young lady who spent a summer in Italy in the early thirties told me that she was chided for saying the word
"foot" because it was unmentionable in Roman society.


You were around in the year thirty? Man, you ARE old! Oh, but you're only kidding; they didn't use our calendar back then.


#47763 11/19/01 10:14 AM
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About this entry:

Heel (n.) The part of any tool next the tang or handle; as, the heel of a scythe.

The parts of the scythe interest me. There's a horizontal pin on the scythe that has a name that is identical to the pin that is part of an oar lock. The word escapes me. Does anyone know what the word is? I'll have to look up tholepin because that is ringing a bell, but have to get ready for school now.

Best regards,
DubDub


#47764 11/19/01 10:20 AM
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Well, my curiosity got the better of me, and here's what a quick search of tholepin (not to be confused with solepin) turned up:

peg, pin, thole, tholepin, rowlock, oarlock -- (a holder attached to the gunwale of a boat that holds the oar in place and acts as a fulcrum for rowing) PART OF: dinghy, dory, rowboat -- (a small boat of shallow draft with cross thwarts for seats and rowlocks for oars with which it is propelled)

http://www.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/wn?cmd=wn&word=tholepin

I'm fairly certain that either thole or tholepin is also the word for the pin on a scythe. Not certain at all about what relation, if any, the tholepin may have to the heel of the scythe.

WW


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I have a memory of seeingthe word "heeler" used as the name for a type of dog in australia. (Confirmation, you OZ'ns?) From the context, I gathered it was a dog used to round up sheep or cattle - presumably by nipping their heels.


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And there was the indigent cobbler who had a bad cold. He went to the Doctor to ask for some relief, so that he could continue to work, but admitted that he had no money to pay for the treatment at the moment. The doctor told him that, without money, he would not provide medicine and to go away, that the cold would soon clear up.

Some months later, the Doctor's shoe lost its heel leather as he was on his way to an important dinner. He was not carrying his wallet, but he went into the shoe shop and asked if he could have an emergency repair, but that he was unable to pay spot cash.

The cobbler, of course, said, "Physician, heel thyself."


#47767 11/19/01 03:12 PM
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Dear Rod: because nipping is so undesirable in sheep dogs, at least in trials, I wondered about the meaning of the name "heeler". I found a site about Australian Cattle Dogs, and they do bite, but are chosen not to bite hard. And for cattle rustling, they were chosen not to make any noise.
http://www.cattledog.com/misc/history.html


#47768 11/19/01 09:05 PM
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re: the word "foot" because it was unmentionable in Roman society.

thanks dr. bill-- i was thinking about this.. a work friend from years ago was also a biblical scholar and she mentioned that nakedness, and adultry are almost never mentioned directly in the bible, but rather, it would be mentioned that some one had exposed their foot. and this was the short hand for indecent behaviour.. any one else know anything about this? or chapter or verse about playing footsie in the bible?
i wonder if this was why.. and did the biblical scholars pick it up from Roman customs, or did the romans pick it up from the bible...


#47769 11/20/01 12:55 AM
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When Australian TV used to be broadcast here by satellite there was a police drama series called "Blue Heelers". I never watched it so I can't say more than that. It seemed from the trailers to be set in a fairly rural part of Australia.

Bingley


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#47770 11/20/01 03:17 AM
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Having been busy lately, I have just discovered and read this thread, and have a number of notes to make to various postings, which I'll get in in one swell foop:

WW: I believe it's slue-foot, not slew-foot, but I could be wrong. Tsuwm, what say you ?
WW: Oedipus means 'pierced foot'. When the infant Oedipus was exposed in his infancy, his heels were pierced. It was by this that he was later exposed as the son of Jocasta, being her husband also. [You like that use of 'exposed' with two different meanings?}
WW: You mention sabots. Were you aware that 'saboteur' comes from 'sabot'? In a European (Belgian, actually, I think) version of the Luddites, workers afraid of being displaced by machines tried to wreck them by throwing their wooden shoes into the machinery.
WW: "Cadence in music" A musical cadence is a usage of two or three related chords at the end of a piece or section to sort of round it off. It's sort of like the rhyming couplet used by Shakespeare to mark the end of a scene or act. The Plegel (not sure of the spelling here) Cadence is the one that sounds like the 'Amen' which used to come at the end of a hymn.
ofTroy: exposing the foot. Businessmen, or businesspersons if you insist, who are contemplating travelling to Arab countries are warned to be careful how they sit when in company of Arabs. Sitting so as to expose the sole of one's foot to an Arab is a deadly insult.
[On second thought, I retract the 'businesspersons'; it can only be businessmen, as I don't believe there are any Arabs who will conduct business with a woman the way we do. Their loss.]


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Dear BobY: I read somewhere fairly recently about a lady journalist who was interviewing a lady intellectual somewhere in southeast Asia, and was surprised to find the lady was scowling at her furiously - because toe of one of her feet was pointing at the lady. Regrettably, the article did not explain why that was a serious breach of good taste.

PS I found a site about, and here is a quote:

The head is the most sacred part of the body, so should not be touched.
The feet are the least sacred, so when sitting they should not point at
anyone - most Thais sit on the floor with their feet tucked under their
bodies behind them. To point, particularly with one’s foot, is extremely
insulting.


#47772 11/20/01 07:05 AM
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slew-foot (and slew, for that matter) is the usual headword
and slue-foot (and slue) is the variant. F. Scott Fitzgerald spelled it slue-foot; J. B. Priestley used slewfooting. so there's your slew-footed, but equivocal, answer.


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BobyY: Thanks in particular for "pierced foot"--I'd forgotten the translation.

tsuwm: And I loved your slew-footed response.

Also, about slew, there's a world of definitions, at least a slew of 'em to study for the marshologist. Here's one retrieved:

slews n : a large number or amount; "made lots of new friends" [syn: tons, dozens, heaps, lots, piles, scores, stacks, loads, rafts, wads, oodles, gobs, scads, lashings]


Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University


Catch a kittenkaboodle or kittenkaslewdle of them at:

http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=slews

WoodenShoe



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I believe it's slue-foot, not slew-foot, but I could be wrong.

I am conscious of the fact that there is really no "right" or "wrong" in spelling - only usage. But on this side of the pond, I have only come across "slew-footed" (and it isn't a common saying here, anyway.) "Slew" is used to mean, "at an angle to the true direction" - e.g., the car was slewed across the road after it skidded.

"Slewed" is also a slang term for drunk.
(This is quite apart from its meaning as the past of "slay", of course.)


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Rhuby:

Do check out the link I posted above--there are many meanings for slew--a slew of 'em. I think you'll enjoy the reading.

Best regards,
WW


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Yes - I did so as soon as my post appeared and I found yours above it! Sorry to duplicate, everyone!

Trouble is, I was working from thread mode, which I am not very used to, and hadn't noticed that there was a later post that the one I answered! I must say that, personally, I am much more comfortable when I'm flat.


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personally, I am much more comfortable when I'm flat.
Well, I like you in a flat pos...naw, I ain't goin' there!





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nipping is undesirable in sheep dogs. I wondered about the meaning of the name "heeler". Australian Cattle Dogs do bite
which makes sense: cattle, being far bigger than sheep, cannot be cowed by a less aggressive dog


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an addition to Dub-Dub's extensive list is the ward heeler, a staple of Chicago politics:
http://bartleby.com/61/97/W0029700.html: ward heeler NOUN: Informal A worker for the ward organization of a political machine.
hhhmmmmm ... might have to change my screenname to "wordheeler".



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Filet of sole, anyone?
And how about Charlie Chaplin's classic shoe-eating scene in (ed.)"The Gold Rush."(I stand corrected) is that the right flick?


#47781 11/21/01 12:33 PM
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Warning: food post.

Then, of course, there's the traditional pickled pigs' feet.


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to say nothing of boiled cow's heels!


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Trotters = pickled hooves


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Now this is a change of scene: Culinary Pediments....

Isn't the pediment something like a little roof that goes up outside a building--like a pediment above a door?
I can't liu right now 'cause I'm on my way home for Thanksgiving break, hallelujah!

But ped is bound to come from foot--and yet here's this architectural structure that is well above the usual place for the feet. Interesting.....

So, a culinary pediment could be a chef's hat...oui? Do you follow my thinking here?

Best regards and happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating it!
WW


#47785 11/21/01 06:17 PM
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Keiva - That would be "The Gold Rush".


#47786 11/21/01 07:36 PM
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Musick, speaking of "The Gold Rush" reminds me of a miner, 49-er and his daughter, Clementine.

She had the distinction of wearing herring boxes for shoes before succumbing to the waters...

GlubGlub


#47787 11/21/01 07:37 PM
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"That would be "The Gold Rush". I can still remember Chaplin delicately nibbling the nails from the shoe.


#47788 11/22/01 02:53 AM
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Definitely delicate, wwh--you couldn't hear a single crunch.


#47789 11/22/01 03:25 AM
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Long ago, in a college musical, there were a few verses about "footprints on the dashboard upside down'.
A whole bunch of URLs about it, all plagiarised from the original.


#47790 11/22/01 02:28 PM
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>footprints on the dashboard

or, paradise by the dashboard light...
http://www.qgm.com/meatloaf/lyrics/paradise.html


#47791 11/22/01 02:56 PM
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An American literature professor from decades ago said that there was a Puritan sitting on the back seat of every car parked on Lovers' Lane. Seems an appropriate comment on Thanksgiving Day and these dashing footprints...


#47792 11/25/01 09:46 PM
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pediment

Yes, (in temple language) a pediment is the triangular area between the frieze and the roof. I suspected that it was so named because that's the area where relief sculptures were generally placed and the feet of the sculptures would be on the bottom of the pediment. Also, in Etruscan temples, statues were placed on the roof, so their feet would be on top of the pediment.

Apparently, this is wrong. M-W says that it's an alteration of periment, which is possibly derived from pyramid.


#47793 11/25/01 10:01 PM
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Jazz, Your theory was interesting, at least. And if the freize presented fauns, trolls, and such, it would have been an impediment on which they rested their frolicsome little feet.

Dub


#47794 11/25/01 11:35 PM
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In the early days of wine making, the grapes were crushed by the (?) dainty feet of virgins. I wonder that there was not a shortage of qualified treaders. And just as girls painted their legs due to stocking shortage in WWII, the girls must have had colorful underpinnings when they finished.


#47795 11/25/01 11:40 PM
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as we come to an end--or at least an interlude, since replies to this post should be posted in a new thread, let us not forget the humble footman.

roman superstition had it that it was bad luck to cross a threshhold with ones left foot. to make sure this didn't happen, them that had the where with all, had footmen at their doors..to assist any guest in, and to make sure all who entered entered with the right foot!


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