legs | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

86 entries found.

cross-legged (adj.)

"having the legs crossed" (usually of seated persons), 1520s; see cross- + leg (n.).

leg-lock (n.)

1848, "chains for the legs," from leg (n.) + lock (n.1). As a hold in wrestling, from 1886.

leg (v.)

"to use the legs; walk or run," c. 1500 (from the beginning usually with it); from leg (n.).

legged

"having legs" (of a specified kind), usually in compounds, mid-15c., from leg (n.).

bow-legged (adj.)

also bowlegged, "having the legs bowed outward," 1550s, from bow (n.1) + legged.

shin (v.)

"to climb by using arms and legs" (originally a nautical word), 1829, from shin (n.). Related: Shinned; shinning.

gams (n.)

"legs," 1781, low slang, probably the same word as gamb "leg of an animal on a coat of arms" (1727) and ultimately from Middle English gamb "leg," which is from French (see gammon). Now, in American English slang, especially with reference to well-formed legs of pretty women, but this was not the original sense.

brachiosaurus (n.)

1903, Modern Latin, from Greek brakhion "an arm" (see brachio-) + -saurus. The forelegs are notably longer than the hind legs.

daddy (n.)

c. 1500, colloquial diminutive of dad, with -y (3). Slang daddy-o is attested by 1949, from bop talk.

Daddy-long-legs is from 1814 in Britain as "crane-fly," a slender, long-legged summer fly. In the U.S., it was used by 1865 as the word for a spider-like arachnid with a small round body and very long, slender legs.

A superstition obtains among our cow-boys that if a cow be lost, its whereabouts may be learned by inquiring of the Daddy-Long-legs (Phalangium), which points out the direction of the lost animal with one of its fore legs. [Frank Cowan, "Curious Facts in the History of Insects, Including Spiders and Scorpions," Philadelphia, 1865]

bestride (v.)

Old English bestridan "to straddle the legs over, mount," from be- + stridan "to stride" (see stride (v.)). Compare Middle Dutch bestryden. Related: Bestrid; bestriding.

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