The story
- Old English · inherited fromfōt
- Old English · derived fromfyllan
- Middle English · inherited fromfillen“to fill”
- English todayfylfot
Uncertain, but likely from Middle English fillen (“to fill”) (from Old English fyllan) + fot (“foot”) (from Old English fōt), in reference to its use as a design to be placed at the bottom of stained-glass windows.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishfōt all →
footFosseyfuttock
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.