Etymology

cold feet

Today it means: A feeling of nervousness or anxiety causing one to reconsider a decision about an upcoming event. Full definition →

German kalte Füße bekommen ← Lombard avegh minga frecc i pee
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The story

  1. Lombard · calque ofavegh minga frecc i pee“to have no money”
  2. German · calque ofkalte Füße bekommen“to get cold feet”
  3. English todaycold feet

Idiomatic sense possibly from a calque of German kalte Füße bekommen (“to get cold feet”), or of Lombard avegh minga frecc i pee (“to have no money”, literally “to be cold in the feet”) (Italian aver freddo ai piedi), said by a person who wishes to stop gambling, allegedly because the person now has cold feet due to being too poor to afford proper footwear.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.