Footing

How to spell footing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce footing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does footing mean?

1. nounA secure grip or stable position for the feet; balance while standing or moving.
2. nounThe basis on which something is established, or a person's relative position or standing.
3. nounThe widened base of masonry or concrete that spreads a structure's load onto the ground.

Footing in a sentence

• She lost her footing on the wet bathroom tiles.

• The two firms now compete on an equal footing.

• The builders poured a concrete footing before laying the wall.

• The climber found firm footing on a narrow ledge.

• The new contract put the business on a sound financial footing.

• A deeper footing was needed to support the extension.

Where does footing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the very old native noun 'foot', which comes from Old English 'fot', the body part at the end of the leg; that in turn traces back to a Proto-Germanic root shared with Dutch 'voet' and German 'Fuss', and ultimately to an Indo-European root that also gave Latin 'pes' and Greek 'pous'. The abstract noun 'footing' was formed within English by adding the suffix '-ing', which here turns the idea of placing or steadying the foot into a thing or state. It first appears in the late Middle Ages meaning a foothold or secure place to stand, then naturally extended to the figurative sense of a basis or established position, as in being on a firm or equal footing. By the seventeenth century builders had borrowed it for the spread base of masonry that a wall stands on. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply 'foot' plus '-ing', with the single 't' preserved rather than doubled because the stressed vowel is already long-settled in the root.

How the word is built

• foot (from Old English fot: the foot)
• -ing (noun-forming suffix)