tenderfoot
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English
Etymology
From tender + foot. Refers to the delicate feet of newcomers to ranching or mining areas. First attested 1866.
Noun
tenderfoot (plural tenderfeet or tenderfoots)
- (chiefly Canada, US) An inexperienced person; a novice.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:beginner, Thesaurus:newcomer
- (historical) A newcomer or arriviste to the region in the American frontier (Old West and Wild West).
- 1914, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Houghton Mifflin Company, page 173:
- Watson had risen so hurriedly that he had not been careful about his “tarp” and water had run into his bed. But that wouldn’t disconcert anybody but a tenderfoot.
- 1991 August 31, Rudy Grillo, “Color Me Gay”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 7, page 10:
- "Lavender Cowboy," a pseudo folk song, is a tale of futility. It tells of a tenderfoot "with only two hairs on his chest," whose heroic attempt to prove his manhood results in his death.
- (dated) A Boy Scout of the lowest rank.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
novice
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newcomer in the old US frontier days
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lowest rank of Boy Scout
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