To Drag Your Feet - Theatre Etymology - Part 46

To drag you feet can have a literal meaning of actually not picking up your feet and dragging them along the floor so a part of the foot touches the floor. It can also have the meaning of doing something else that is not what needs to be done. This is in order to delay what needs to be done. This can be as simple as actually walking somewhere or it may mean doing an activity that is different to the one that needs to be done. You might also do the activity, but do is slowly and reluctantly because you do not want to do it.

Sometimes it is said that a person drags his or her heels rather than feet. Both ways work. It seems that this phrase might come from the theatre when describing a type of walk for a character who does not want to do what he or she is supposed to do in the play. The character is know to drag his or her feet or heels. Another way some scripts may write this is that the character may shuffle.

The word drag comes from the Middle English noun and verb which probably comes from the Middle Low German word dragge, grapnel, or draggen meaning to dredge. The word foot comes from the Middle English and Old English word fōt. It is also descended from the German word Fuss which is akin to the Latin word pēs and the Latin stem ped-, as well as the Greek word poús and the Greek stem pod-.The word shuffle comes from the Low German word schuffeln meaning to walk clumsily or with dragging feet, or mix (cards). The root of shuffle is akin to the root of shovel.

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