footer

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈfʊtə/
Hyphenation: foot‧er
Rhymes: -ʊtə(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English footer, equivalent to foot +‎ -er.

Noun

footer (plural footers)

(archaic) A footgoer; pedestrian
(computing) A line of information printed at the bottom of a page as identification of the document (compare foot, 12).
(in combination) something that is a stated number of feet in some dimension - such as a six-footer.
(in combination) someone who has a preference for a certain foot - such as right-footer/left-footer

Antonyms

(computing sense): header

Translations

line of information at the bottom of a page

Czech: zápatí n
Dutch: voettekst (nl)
Estonian: jalus
Finnish: alatunniste
French: pied de page (fr) m
German: Fußzeile f

Hungarian: lábléc, élőláb
Italian: piè m
Maori: hiku
Russian: ни́жний колонти́тул m (nížnij kolontítul)
Spanish: pie de página m

something that is a stated number of feet in some dimension

Finnish: -jalkainen

slang: soccer

Finnish: futis (fi)

French: foot (fr) m

Etymology 2

From football +‎ -er (“Oxford -er”)

Noun

footer (plural footers)

(chiefly Britain, slang) Football / soccer.

Etymology 3

18th century. From fouter, foutre (“valueless thing”), possibly from French foutre (“to lecher”), from Latin futuere, present active infinitive of futuō (“I have vaginal sex”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to hit”).[etym3 1][etym3 2]

Verb

footer (third-person singular simple present footers, present participle footering, simple past and past participle footered)

(Ireland and Scotland, slang) To meddle with or pass time without accomplishing anything meaningful.

Synonyms

fidget, fuss, idle, potter, trifle

Descendants

English: footle

Translations

slang: to meddle

Finnish: hengailla (fi), chillailla

Spanish: perder el tiempo

References

“footer” (US) / “footer” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press. "Mid 18th century: variant of obsolete foutre ‘valueless thing, contemptible person’, from Old French."
“footle” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019, retrieved 12 June 2017: “Footle (v) [...] from dialectal footer "to trifle," footy "mean, paltry" (1752), perhaps from French se foutre "to care nothing," from Old French futer "to copulate with," from Latin futuere "have sex with (a woman)," originally "to strike, thrust" (which is perhaps from PIE root *bhau- "to strike").”.

Anagrams

foetor, fœtor, refoot, tofore

[1] “footer” (US) / “footer” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press. "Mid 18th century: variant of obsolete foutre ‘valueless thing, contemptible person’, from Old French."

[2] “footle” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019, retrieved 12 June 2017: “Footle (v) [...] from dialectal footer "to trifle," footy "mean, paltry" (1752), perhaps from French se foutre "to care nothing," from Old French futer "to copulate with," from Latin futuere "have sex with (a woman)," originally "to strike, thrust" (which is perhaps from PIE root *bhau- "to strike").”.