Etymology

footless

F4O1O1T1L1E1S1S1

Today it means: Without feet. Full definition →

Middle English fotles ← Old English *fōtlēas ← Proto-Germanic *fōtalausaz
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*fōtalausaz“footless”
  2. Old English · inherited from*fōtlēas
  3. Middle English · inherited fromfotles
  4. English todayfootless

From Middle English fotles, from Old English *fōtlēas (only found as fēþelēas (“footless”)), from Proto-Germanic *fōtalausaz (“footless”), equivalent to foot + -less. Cognate with Dutch voetloos, German fußlos, Swedish fotlös, Icelandic fótalaus (“footless, legless”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.