English Language & Usage Asked on March 28, 2021
First time poster to this forum.
I’ve recently started to notice a lot of people using the phrase “step foot” as a replacement for “set foot”, eg.
I wouldn’t step foot in that restaurant
I find this a bit jarring, and it seems like an incorrect use of the phrase “set foot” that has recently entered the zeitgeist. Am I out of touch or mistaken here? Is there a way of tracking usage of this new version of the phrase?
Your assumption appears to be suggested also here:
Apparently a blending of step with set foot, perhaps by confusion.
(chiefly US) Alternative form of set foot:
An early usage is from the the beginning of the 19th century:
1813, Washington Irving, “Sketches of an Excursion from Edinburgh to Dublin”, in The Analectic magazine, page 480:
- This was a pleasure of no small kind; and in stepping foot again upon the soil of that country, which contains much that I prize, and more that I admire.
(Wiktionary)
And also the in the following extract the Washington State University confirms that step foot is a misusage of set foot:
- When you want to say that you refuse to enter some location, the traditional expression is not “step foot,” but “set foot”: “I refuse to set foot in my brother-in-law’s house while he lets his vicious pit bull run around inside.”
Correct answer by user 66974 on March 28, 2021
Step doesn't work like that. You can step up, step out, step back, step on; you step in a direction. You can take a step, and a foot is also a measure of length. But you don't "step inch / metre / whatever". You can set foot; you are putting your foot somewhere (in it, possibly...). But you don't "step foot"; it doesn't make sense.
I'm aware of mondegreens, but eggcorns are a new one on me. I've always regarded this one as an 'Americanism' (I'm a Yook). Its (mis-)usage has become more balanced in the UK in more recent years, but it used to be overwhelmingly something you saw / heard from US sources. However! If memory serves, a little while ago I read the rather excellent Folio Society Eyewitness History of the Raj. Somewhere in there, I am fairly sure, was the same misusage from a 19thC Brit. I can't date it in comparison with the US 1813 given above, but although most sources seem to give it as "chiefly US", I suggest that the misheard 'eggcorn' origin is perhaps the most likely.
Answered by Rædwulf on March 28, 2021
The usual expression is “set foot,” but “step foot” is very popular, and it's not all that new. In fact, both phrases have been around for centuries. The Oxford English Dictionary has examples of foot-setting going back to the 1400s and of foot-stepping dating from the 1500s.
Answered by Diana Korchien on March 28, 2021
Get help from others!
Recent Answers
Recent Questions
© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP