barefoot
/ˈbɛɹfʊt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.39 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
Transmitting without the use of an amplifier.
name
An unincorporated community in Nicholas County, Kentucky, United States.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "After taking off their shoes, socks and sandals at the doorway, the kids were barefoot."
- "[L]ike Hedg-hogs vvhich / Lye tumbling in my bare-foote vvay, and mount / Their pricks at my foot-fall: ſometime am I / All vvound vvith Adders, vvho vvith clouen tongues / Doe hiſſe me into madneſſe: […]"
- "It was firm enough to walk on, but Bradly took off his boots to preserve the leather from sea-water, and for the pleasure of barefoot walking on cool sand."
- "She likes to go barefoot in the summertime."
- "Ignoring the familiar discomfort, he padded barefoot across the thick white carpet toward the heavy curtains that lined the richly appointed bedroom’s wide transparisteel window."
Etymology
From Middle English barefote, barfot, from Old English bærfōt (“barefoot”), from Proto-West Germanic *baʀafōt, from Proto-Germanic *bazafōts (“barefoot”) equivalent to bare + foot. Cognate with Scots barefit (“barefoot”), Old Frisian berfōt ("barefoot"; modern Saterland Frisian boarfouts (“barefoot”, adverb)), Dutch barrevoets (“barefoot”, adverb), German barfuß (“barefoot”), Danish barfodet (“barefoot”), Swedish barfota (“barefoot”, adverb), Icelandic berfættur (“barefoot”), Yiddish באָרוועס (borves, “barefoot”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: barefote, bærfōt, *baʀafōt, *bazafōts
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɛɹfʊt/
- British English: /ˈbɛəfʊt/