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Historical usage suggests a shift from older term 足駄(ashida, “clogs”, later, referring more specifically to “tall clogs” in contrast to the “short clogs” referenced by the term geta), itself deriving from 足(ashi, “foot”) + 板(ita, “board”)[1][2][3] from the even older practice of wearing flat pieces of wood on one's feet when working in the paddies to keep from sinking into the mud, similar in principle to snowshoes. This latter footwear persisted in use into the 20th century as 田下駄(ta-geta, literally “paddy geta”).
The historical derivation indicates that the 駄 character's “footwear” sense, which is specific to Japanese and is not found in Chinese sources, could have arisen from phoneticateji (当て字) usage in the terms ashida and geta.