Barefoot

How to spell barefoot

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce barefoot

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does barefoot mean?

1. adjectiveWearing nothing on the feet.

Barefoot in a sentence

• The children ran barefoot across the warm sand.

• She padded barefoot through the kitchen to fetch a glass of water.

Where does barefoot come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Barefoot is a native English compound that has been in the language since well before the Norman Conquest, appearing in Old English as 'bærfot'. Its two parts are both ancient Germanic words: 'bær', the ancestor of modern 'bare', meant uncovered or naked, while 'fot' is simply the early form of 'foot'. The combination has always meant exactly what it says, with nothing on the feet, and the spelling has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years. The only mild trap is that the second element keeps the single 'o' to 'o' of 'foot' rather than doubling into anything unexpected, and that the word is written as one solid piece rather than two. Related compounds such as 'barehead' and 'bareback' were formed on the same simple model.

How the word is built

• bare (uncovered, naked)
• foot (the body part)