A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

PRONUNCIATION:

(flat-FOOT-id)

MEANING:

adjective:

1. Clumsy; unimaginative; uninspired.

2. Forthright.

3. Unprepared.

4. Uncompromising.

5. Having the arch of the foot flattened so the entire sole touches the ground.

ETYMOLOGY:

From flat, from Old Norse flatr + foot, from Old English fot. Earliest documented use: 1601. (A flatfoot is not necessarily flatfooted.)

USAGE:

“I pick up a book, sigh over its flawed reasoning and flat-footed writing.”

James C. Howell; The Beauty of the Word; Westminster John Knox Press; 2011.

“I want to come out flatfooted and ask you boys to OK the proposition of a Symphony Orchestra for Zenith.”

Sinclair Lewis; Babbitt; Harcourt, Brace & Co.; 1922.

“The dog, caught flatfooted by his master’s sudden move, was forced to run to catch up.”

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman; The Hand of Chaos; Bantam Books; 1993.

“Litvinoff’s life was defined by a delight in the weight of the real; his friend’s by a rejection of reality, with its army of flat-footed facts.”

Nicole Krauss; The History of Love; Norton; 2006.

“Look at these boot prints, amigo. They turn in at the heel, worn down on the inside. This man is flat footed, that’s the way he walks.”

Edna Evans; Gypsy Fires; Writers Club Press; 2001.