"all over" (in reference to dress or armor), 1520s, from French cap-à-pie, literally "head to foot." The more usual French form is de pied en cap. The French words are from Latin caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head") + pedem "foot" (from PIE root *ped- "foot").

1743, in architecture, "raised platform around an ancient arena" (upon which sat persons of distinction), also "projecting base of a pedestal," from Latin podium "raised platform," from Greek podion "foot of a vase," diminutive of pous (genitive podos) "foot," from PIE root *ped- "foot." Meaning "raised platform at the front of a hall or stage" is by 1947.

"lowly chess piece, a piece of the lowest rank and value in chess," late 14c., poune, from Anglo-French poun, Old French peon, earlier pehon "a foot-soldier; a pawn at chess," from Medieval Latin pedonem "foot soldier," from Late Latin pedonem (nominative pedo) "one going on foot," from Latin pes (genitive pedis) "foot," from PIE root *ped- "foot." The chess sense was in Old French by 13c. Figurative use, of persons, is by 1580s, but Middle English had rook and pawn "high and low persons," thus "everyone."

name given to the fertile upland region along the eastern slope of the Appalachians, 1755, originally piemont, from Italian Piemonte, literally "mountain foot," name of the region at the foot of the Alps in northern Italy (see Piedmont). With -d- added by 1855. Applied by extension to similar regions at the foot of other mountain ranges (1860).

type of protozoa, 1862, from Modern Latin pseudopodium (itself in English from 1854), from pseudo- + Latinized form of Greek podion, diminutive of pous "foot" (from PIE root *ped- "foot"). Related: Pseudopodal.

also foot-note, in printing, "a note at the bottom of a page as an appendage to some part of the text," 1841, from foot (n.) "lower end of a document" (1660s) + note (n.). So called from its original position at the foot of a page. Also sometimes formerly bottom note. As a verb, from 1864. Related: Footnoted; footnoting.

1610s, "lever (on an organ) worked by foot," from French pédale "feet, trick with the feet," from Italian pedale "treadle, pedal," from Late Latin pedale "(thing) of the foot," neuter of Latin pedalis "of the foot," from pes (genitive pedis) "foot," which is from the PIE root *ped- "foot."

The word was extended by 1789 to any part of a machine or apparatus which transmits power from the foot of the operator. Pedal steel guitar (so called from the pedals which change the tension of the strings) is attested by 1959. Pedal-pushers "type of women's trousers suitable for bicycling" is from 1944 (pedal-pusher "a bicyclist" is from 1934).

When college girls took to riding bicycles in slacks, they first rolled up one trouser leg, then rolled up both. This whimsy has now produced a trim variety of long shorts, called "pedal pushers." [Life magazine, Aug. 28, 1944]